By Shweta Sharma

A high-alert security posture has been activated in India’s Kashmir valley ahead of prime minister Narendra Modi’s first visit in more than five years since the federal territory was stripped of its special status.

Top officials of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kashmir are making arrangements for his first public rally on Thursday ahead of the high-stakes national elections.

This would mark Mr Modi’s first visit to the valley since February 2019 when he launched a hydro-power station and chaired a security meeting in the region.

More recently, he visited the Hindu-majority Jammu in February to inaugurate a series of development initiatives as he continues to tour various states with his speeches focusing on his government’s work during his two terms in power.

Drone surveillance has been intensified, more checkpoints and barricades set up, and additional security officers mobilized for Mr Modi’s rally.
BJP officials in Kashmir have said that hundreds of thousands of government employees were being mobilised to attend the rally, with party leaders expecting a crowd of around 200,000 people in an apparent bid to project it as a huge success.

This story was originally published in independent.co.uk. Read the full story here.