India axes rule on Kashmir voting rights after political parties' outcry

FILE PHOTO: Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel check the bags of a scooterist as part of security checking in Srinagar, October 12, 2021. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - India scrapped on Thursday a rule granting voting rights to new residents of its Jammu and Kashmir region after widespread anger among political parties, who labelled it a bid to change the demographics of the country's only Muslim-majority region.

Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by nuclear arch-rivals India and Pakistan, who have fought two of their three wars over control of the Himalayan territory.