India to hold Jammu & Kashmir elections from Sept. 18

India will hold provincial elections in the Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir from September 18, the first regional polls there in a decade and five years after New Delhi scrapped the region's special autonomy.

Jammu and Kashmir has been at the heart of more than 75 years of animosity with neighbouring Pakistan following independence from colonial rule by Britain in 1947.

The larger Kashmir region is divided between India, Pakistan and China.

The part ruled by India had a special status that was revoked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2019 and the state was split into two federally-administered territories.

The decision to hold fresh elections follows a December order by India's Supreme Court that rejected petitions challenging the revocation of Kashmir's special status and set a deadline of September 30 for holding provincial polls.

Nearly 9 million people are registered to vote for the 90-member legislative assembly, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters on Friday.

The vote will be held in three phases and ballots counted on October 4, with results expected the same day.

Modi says his 2019 decision brought normalcy to Kashmir after decades of bloodshed and that the special status allowed it a measure of administrative autonomy that held back the region's development.

His government has since launched multiple projects to boost the local economy while tourism has boomed in the scenic, mountainous region.

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part after having fought two of their three wars over the region.

Elections in the territory have been targeted by militants in the past and also seen low voter turnout. However, it recorded its highest turnout in 35 years in the Indian parliamentary elections held in April and May this year, with a 58.46 per cent participation rate.