Key Points
The United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreement, though, put Ghulam Muhammads villageTaobatin Pakistan-occupied Kashmir...
As northern Kashmir votes in the legislative assembly elections today, the Bharatiya Janata Party is gambling big on Gurez, pumping in campaign resources in the hope that the remote mountain constituency might just give the party its first-ever seat in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region..
The partys candidate, Faqir Muhammad Khan, had won the 1996 elections as an Independent, and had come in a close second on a Congress Party ticket behind three-time MLA of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, former deputy speaker and minister, Nazir Ahmad Khan in 2002, 2008 and 2014...
Even though Gurez is a tiny constituency with just over 22,291 votersagainst say, Sonawari in the plains, which has 1,21,276Faqirs personal credentials give the BJP a real chance of registering a victory that the party hopes will lay the foundations for its growth in a region where it is widely seen as anti-Muslim..
Even though hundreds of young Gurezi men serve the army as porters, the town has no centre that coaches aspirants wanting to join the armed forces or central police.. Firdaus Ahmad Sheikh says he was denied a seat last year on one of the helicopters the government flies out of Gurez when it is cut off by snowfall, even though he produced papers showing that he had a job examination..
