FRUITFUL TALKS In this handout photograph taken on June 24, 2021 and released by the Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB), India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (bottom center) poses for a picture with various political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, in New Delhi. AFP PHOTO
FRUITFUL TALKS In this handout photograph taken on June 24, 2021 and released by the Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB), India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (bottom center) poses for a picture with various political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, in New Delhi. AFP PHOTO


NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met with Kashmir's leaders for the first time since the restive region's semi-autonomy was revoked, as he called for measures to speed up elections for the territory now under direct rule.

Modi's Hindu-nationalist government moved to bring India's only Muslim-majority state Jammu and Kashmir under greater central control in August 2019, splitting it into two territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh - and detaining scores of local politicians.

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