SRINAGAR, India: India’s prime minister will on Sunday hold his first public event in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir since New Delhi imposed a sweeping security clampdown there more than two years ago.
Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has sought to quell a long-running insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir and buttress its hold over the Muslim-majority region, which is claimed by neighboring Pakistan and over which the countries have fought two wars.
New Delhi nullified the area’s limited autonomy in 2019, when authorities arrested thousands and imposed the world’s longest Internet shutdown, seeking to forestall local opposition to the move.
It is the most militarized part of India, with more than half a million soldiers and paramilitaries deployed across the region.
Tight security is being put in place for Modi’s visit, but he can nonetheless expect a rousing welcome in Palli, with tens of thousands expected to welcome him at an event marshalled by his governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The village is in Jammu, the Hindu-majority southern part of the territory, which celebrated New Delhi’s introduction of direct rule as a bulwark against Kashmir’s separatist movement.
Modi will preside over a ceremony to mark Panchayati Raj — a day that commemorates grassroots democracy, although Kashmir has been without an elected regional government since 2018, when the BJP left its ruling coalition and the New Delhi-appointed governor stepped in.
Its last chief minister was detained during the clampdown and only released more than a year later.
Sunday’s event will see Modi lead the region “into a new era of development,” Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha told reporters.
Modi’s government says its decision to end Kashmir’s limited autonomy was aimed at fostering a lasting peace and bringing investment into the troubled region, where tens of thousands of people have been killed over the years.
The result has been a rigid security framework that has rendered public protest virtually impossible and that critics say has put a stranglehold on civic life.
Around 2,300 people, mostly politicians and activists who have campaigned against Indian rule, have been arrested under vaguely worded legislation that allows authorities to designate anyone as a terrorist and puts the burden of innocence on the accused.
International human rights groups have condemned the measures.
Foreign journalists are barred from visiting and local reporters are often summoned by counterinsurgency police and questioned over their work, with three arrested in recent months under preventative detention laws.
“Reporting from Kashmir is now like walking and living on the razor’s edge all the time,” a journalist working for an Indian newspaper said, declining to be identified for fear of government reprisals.
“It’s a very fearful atmosphere.”
Police say that violence has declined since the 2019 overhaul of Kashmir’s status.
But almost 1,000 people have been killed in that time — among them soldiers, militants and civilians — and young men continue to join rebel groups that have fought Indian rule of Kashmir for more than three decades.
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India PM Narendra Modi to hold first Kashmir public event since clampdown
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India PM Narendra Modi to hold first Kashmir public event since clampdown
- Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has sought to quell a long-running insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir
Maduro’s fall tests Venezuela’s ruling ‘club’
- The ousting of Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela’s president puts to the test his “Chavista” factions that have governed the oil-rich nation for 27 years
CARACAS: The ousting of Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela’s president puts to the test his “Chavista” factions that have governed the oil-rich nation for 27 years.
What happens to the so-called “club of five” powerful leftist figures, now that two of its most important members — Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores — have been captured and sent to the United States to face trial?
’Club of five’
Anointed by his mentor Hugo Chavez before the latter’s death in 2013, Maduro kept a tight grip on power until his capture by US forces on Saturday.
Maduro ruled alongside Flores and three other powerful figures: former vice president Delcy Rodriguez — now Venezuela’s interim leader — her brother Jorge, and their rival: hard-line Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
“It’s like a club of five,” a diplomatic source in Caracas told AFP under the condition of anonymity.
“They can speak, they have a voice in the government, but Maduro was the one who kept the balance. Now that he’s gone, who knows?“
Maduro and ‘Super Cilita’
The image of Maduro handcuffed and blindfolded as US forces transported him to New York to face trial made headlines around the world.
During months in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump, who accused him of being a drug trafficker, the 63-year-old former bus driver deflected pressure by dancing to techno music at near-daily rallies, always broadcast live, as he chanted the mantra “No war, yes peace!” — in English.
Frequently underestimated, Maduro managed to eliminate internal resistance and keep the opposition at bay.
Murals, songs and films celebrated him, as did the animated cartoon “Super Moustache,” in which he appeared as a superhero, fighting imperialism alongside “Super Cilita,” who is based on Flores.
Toy figurines of both characters were also produced.
The military swore absolute loyalty to him, led by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
Though defiant at first and calling for Maduro’s return, Venezuela’s interim leader Rodriguez called for a “balanced and respectful relationship” between the South American country and the United States on Sunday.
“The top level of government has survival as its absolute priority,” Antulio Rosales, political scientist and professor at York University in Canada, told AFP.
The Rodriguez siblings
Rodriguez controlled the economy and the oil industry as vice president while her brother Jorge is the speaker of parliament.
They are known for their incendiary rhetoric, often mixing belligerence, irony and insults against the “enemies of the fatherland.”
But behind the scenes, they are skilled political operators.
Jorge Rodriguez was the chief negotiator with the opposition and the United States, and his sister represented Maduro in various international forums.
Experts also attribute purges within government to them, such as one that sent Tareck El Aissami, a powerful oil minister until 2023, to prison.
Rodriguez took over his post shortly afterwards.
The feared policeman
Diosdado Cabello meanwhile is widely feared in Venezuela. Under his ministry, some 2,400 people were detained during protests that followed Maduro’s disputed re-election in 2024, in a move that cowed the opposition.
Cabello is seen as representing the most radical wing of “Chavismo,” and some see him at odds with the pragmatism of the Rodriguez pair, though both sides have denied this.
Cabello acted as president for a few hours when Chavez was overthrown for two days in 2002.
He accompanied Chavez in a failed coup attempt in 1992. Today he is number two in the Socialist Party behind Maduro.
The US courts have now named Cabello among those wanted for trial alongside Maduro.
They have offered $25 million for his capture.
Having kept a low profile in the hours after Maduro’s capture, he appeared by Rodriguez’s side at her first cabinet meeting as acting president on Sunday.
What happens to the so-called “club of five” powerful leftist figures, now that two of its most important members — Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores — have been captured and sent to the United States to face trial?
’Club of five’
Anointed by his mentor Hugo Chavez before the latter’s death in 2013, Maduro kept a tight grip on power until his capture by US forces on Saturday.
Maduro ruled alongside Flores and three other powerful figures: former vice president Delcy Rodriguez — now Venezuela’s interim leader — her brother Jorge, and their rival: hard-line Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
“It’s like a club of five,” a diplomatic source in Caracas told AFP under the condition of anonymity.
“They can speak, they have a voice in the government, but Maduro was the one who kept the balance. Now that he’s gone, who knows?“
Maduro and ‘Super Cilita’
The image of Maduro handcuffed and blindfolded as US forces transported him to New York to face trial made headlines around the world.
During months in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump, who accused him of being a drug trafficker, the 63-year-old former bus driver deflected pressure by dancing to techno music at near-daily rallies, always broadcast live, as he chanted the mantra “No war, yes peace!” — in English.
Frequently underestimated, Maduro managed to eliminate internal resistance and keep the opposition at bay.
Murals, songs and films celebrated him, as did the animated cartoon “Super Moustache,” in which he appeared as a superhero, fighting imperialism alongside “Super Cilita,” who is based on Flores.
Toy figurines of both characters were also produced.
The military swore absolute loyalty to him, led by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
Though defiant at first and calling for Maduro’s return, Venezuela’s interim leader Rodriguez called for a “balanced and respectful relationship” between the South American country and the United States on Sunday.
“The top level of government has survival as its absolute priority,” Antulio Rosales, political scientist and professor at York University in Canada, told AFP.
The Rodriguez siblings
Rodriguez controlled the economy and the oil industry as vice president while her brother Jorge is the speaker of parliament.
They are known for their incendiary rhetoric, often mixing belligerence, irony and insults against the “enemies of the fatherland.”
But behind the scenes, they are skilled political operators.
Jorge Rodriguez was the chief negotiator with the opposition and the United States, and his sister represented Maduro in various international forums.
Experts also attribute purges within government to them, such as one that sent Tareck El Aissami, a powerful oil minister until 2023, to prison.
Rodriguez took over his post shortly afterwards.
The feared policeman
Diosdado Cabello meanwhile is widely feared in Venezuela. Under his ministry, some 2,400 people were detained during protests that followed Maduro’s disputed re-election in 2024, in a move that cowed the opposition.
Cabello is seen as representing the most radical wing of “Chavismo,” and some see him at odds with the pragmatism of the Rodriguez pair, though both sides have denied this.
Cabello acted as president for a few hours when Chavez was overthrown for two days in 2002.
He accompanied Chavez in a failed coup attempt in 1992. Today he is number two in the Socialist Party behind Maduro.
The US courts have now named Cabello among those wanted for trial alongside Maduro.
They have offered $25 million for his capture.
Having kept a low profile in the hours after Maduro’s capture, he appeared by Rodriguez’s side at her first cabinet meeting as acting president on Sunday.
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