Security was tight on Wednesday as a phased election for choosing a local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir opened in the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.

It is the first such vote since India's government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, residents are voting in elections that some hope will lead to restoration of the territory's statehood, which ended when it became a federally governed territory in 2019.

India’s troubled region of Jammu and Kashmir saw a brisk turnout amid tight security as voters cast their ballots on Wednesday in the first regional legislative elections in a decade. The region, which has seen years of separatist violence and is at the centre of a dispute between India and Pakistan,