The soldiers alighted from the buses parked outside Ramunshi Bagh police station in Srinagar at 5:45 am in the morning on 18 September (Wednesday). It was dark and cold, with the full moon glowing brightly in the backdrop. The men started amassing on the main street in Srinagar, leading towards the Chinar-lined Sher-e-Kashmir cricket stadium where Prime Minister Modi gave his address on Thursday.
Security preparations were afoot a day before the first phase of the highly anticipated assembly elections. A total of 24 seats across the union territory - 16 in Kashmir and eight in Jammu - were in the fray on Wednesday.
The Srinagar leg of PM Modi’s J&K tour saw him addressing the voters in Kashmir where he appeared to caution them against the alleged perfidy of the Valley’s three major mainstream political parties. “They made J&K’s politics their personal fief. Except for their own family members, they don’t want anyone to come forward,” Modi said, in an apparent reference to the National Conference (NC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Congress party.
He added that their monopoly over politics had disillusioned the youth over the years and estranged them from democratic ideals. “They (youth) reasoned that, whether we vote or not, only these three families are going to come (to power),” he said.