India’s lower house expected to ratify bill to split Kashmir

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s lower house of Parliament was set to ratify a bill that would downgrade the governance of India-administered, Muslim-majority Kashmir.

The Lok Sahba was set to vote on the “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill” on Tuesday, a day after the measure was introduced alongside a presidential order dissolving a constitutional provision that gave Kashmiris exclusive, hereditary rights. Security in Kashmir was tightened in advance of the measures to prevent protests.

The lower house is expected to easily ratify the bill downgrading Kashmir from a state to a union territory with a legislature and carving out the Ladakh region as its own union territory without a legislature.

Parliament’s upper house approved the bill with a two-thirds majority, with many opposition lawmakers voting with the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.