Al-jazeera.com :Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended India’s decades-long military presence in the disputed Kashmir region, saying troops were there to safeguard the country’s democracy against separatist rebels.He deplored on Monday a series of rebel attacks that took place on Friday and killed 21 people, including eight Indian soldiers and three police officers.”Our soldiers have sacrificed their lives to safeguard democracy,” he told a campaign rally in Samba town in the disputed Himalayan territory, which is holding local elections this month. “Now you must vote to safeguard their sacrifices,” he said.Modi was in Jammu and Kashmir state for the third time in a month, campaigning for his Bharitya Janata Party in India’s only Muslim-majority state, where rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989.The region was on high alert on Monday with paramilitary snipers on rooftops, road barricades and sniffer dogs near rally sites. A daytime curfew was imposed in some parts of Srinagar barring residents from leaving their homes. Main roads leading into the city were lined with razor wire to contain traffic, while police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled on foot and in armoured vehicles.Pro-India Kashmiri parties promise to boost development and infrastructure if they win, while separatists say the polls are an illegitimate exercise under a military occupation that dates back to India’s independence in 1947. Modi also addressed a rally in Srinagar.Hundreds of people from the countryside and towns had arrived by bus and taxi for that rally, in a sports stadium festooned with orange BJP flags and huge banners bearing Modi’s face.
