PM Narendra Modi meets J&K leaders for first time after abrogation of Article 370

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a crucial meeting with political leaders from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on June 24 for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370 that granted special status to the erstwhile state. No major decision was announced after the meeting and many Kashmiri leaders said they reiterated their demand that New Delhi should reverse its 2019 changes. (Image: AP)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a crucial meeting with pro-India politicians from Jammu & Kashmir on June 24 for the first time since New Delhi stripped the region’s semi-autonomy and jailed many of them in a crackdown. No major decision was announced after the meeting and many Kashmiri leaders said they reiterated their demand that New Delhi should reverse its 2019 changes. (Image: AP)

Among those invited were Kashmir's former three top elected officials: Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti, who was a regional coalition partner of Bharatiya Janata Party for nearly two years after the 2016 state elections. (Image: AP

The Kashmiri alliance stuck to their demands and said they told Modi during the meeting that the region’s semi-autonomous powers should be restored. (Image: Twitter @ANI

Several other leaders, however, steered away from demanding a restoration of the special status and said they instead stressed an early restoration of statehood, the holding of an election and land and employment security for people. (Image: Twitter @narendramodi)