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.

The vote will see a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly, with a chief minister at the top heading a council of ministers. But Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — a region directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament remaining its main legislator.

Jammu and Kashmir is India's only Muslim-majority territory and has been at the centre of a dispute with neighbouring Pakistan since 1947. India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in