RESIDENTS of Indian-controlled Kashmir voted today in the second phase of a staggered regional government election amid tight security measures.

About 2.6 million people are eligible to elect 26 of the 239 candidates in six districts, including Srinagar, the main city, where voters started queuing early in the morning outside some polling booths. 

This is the first such election in a decade and also the first since the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy in 2019.