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Kashmir resistance leader accuses India's Modi of attempting to silence dissent
Supporters assemble to welcome top Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (centre) as he arrives to offer Friday prayers outside the Jamia Masjid or Grand Mosque in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, September 22, 2023

REGIONAL polls to elect a local government will not resolve Kashmir’s decades-old conflict, a key resistance leader has said.

Ahead of the final phase of elections in the Indian-controlled region, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq — who has spent most of the last five years under house detention — said polls are being held as political voices, contesting India’s sovereignty over the region, remain silenced.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s far-right Hindu nationalist government stripped Kashmir of its semi-autonomous constitutional status in 2019.

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