OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: The Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) has been transformed and integrated with the rest of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, crediting the change to his government’s contentious decision to revoke its special status.

Visiting the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley for the first time since 2019 - the year the status was revoked - Modi said IIOJK’s development was a priority for India as it sits like a crown in the country’s north. “This new Jammu-Kashmir has the courage to overcome any challenge,” Modi told thousands of people attending a public meeting at a stadium in Srinagar, the region’s summer capital, amid tight security.

“The country is seeing these smiling faces of yours ... (and) feeling relieved to see you all happy.”

“This is the new Jammu and Kashmir we had been awaiting for decades,” Modi added, listing achievements and investments made during the last five years. IIOJK would become a global success story, he said, as he launched a series of tourism and farm projects.

Armed security personnel guarded downtown areas of occupied Srinagar, commandos in boats patrolled its scenic Dal Lake, and use of drones was banned.