Q&A: Meeting Modi only added to hopelessness, says Kashmir leader

Al Jazeera speaks to Mohamad Yusuf Tarigami, convener of a pro-India Kashmiri alliance which met Narendra Modi in June.

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Thursday marks the second anniversary of India scrapping the special status of the portion of Kashmir it administers – the most far-reaching change in the disputed region in more than 70 years of Indian rule. The August 5, 2019 move, which split the Himalayan region into two federally controlled territories, saw New Delhi imposing a months-long security shutdown and forcing hundreds of people, including top politicians, activists, separatists and young men into prisons, some under stringent anti-terror laws. To tighten its grip over the Muslim-majority region also claimed by neighbouring Pakistan, India’s Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi abolished laws that protected the rights of the local residents over their lands and allowed non-Kashmiris from the mainland to buy land and settle.