Modi faces hostile welcome during visit as PM to Kashmir

SRINAGAR, July 4 (AFP): India's Narendra Modi faced a hostile welcome including a general strike Friday during his first visit as prime minister to Kashmir, where he has sparked anger over apparent plans to curb the region's autonomy.
Schools, shops and other businesses were mostly closed in the main city of Srinagar in protest over Modi's visit, while top separatist leaders were put under house arrest in a security crack down ahead of his arrival.
Restrictions were also imposed on civilians' movements in parts of the city's volatile old town, a top police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Modi, a hardline Hindu nationalist, travelled to Katra town, 270 kilometres (168 miles) from Srinagar, where he opened a railway line linking a popular Hindu shrine in the Muslim-majority state with India's vast railway network.
"This facility is not just meant for the people of the state but for the millions of Indians who want to travel to Mata Vaishnodevi (shrine)," Modi said after flagging off the first train on the Udhampur-Katra line.
Modi said the new railway "will become the fountainhead of development" for the restive Himalayan region, while also dedicating the new train to the Hindu pilgrims who travel to the shrine every year.
"My aim is to win the hearts of the people of the state," Modi added.
The line is a part of an ambitious project to connect the tense Kashmir Valley, where a separatist movement opposed to Indian rule is centered, with the rest of the country's railway network sometime in 2017.