Modi's BJP skips Kashmir in India polls for first time in three decades
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00:00 20-year-old Shahid Shabbir grew up here in Kashmir, a region routinely used to the sound
00:05 of gunshots. His hometown Pulwama is a hotbed of violent clashes between separatist insurgents
00:11 and Indian security forces.
00:13 "The environment we're living in is always stressful, always like a kind of fear. I've
00:20 just come from university, I'm going to meet my parents. And you have that threshold inside,
00:27 fear inside, all the time."
00:30 Shahid is just one among many young Kashmiris growing up amid the turbulent strife in the
00:34 Muslim-majority region.
00:36 With general elections underway in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata
00:41 Party is not contesting in Kashmir for the first time since 1996 - a move his critics
00:47 say is to avoid a likely defeat.
00:50 Modi's government revoked the state's semi-autonomous status in 2019, leading to a major security
00:56 clampdown, mass arrests of political leaders and a months-long telecommunications blackout.
01:02 Many Kashmiri voters in this year's elections say they're eager to express their discontent.
01:07 "We will vote with the hope that there will be prosperity in Kashmir. Every now and then
01:13 things get out of hand here. We want the bloodshed to stop. Our sole purpose of voting is to
01:18 bring an end to this bloodshed. We don't really support any particular party."
01:23 India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir and have fought two wars over control of the Himalayan
01:28 region. More than 50,000 people have died during more than three decades of insurgency.