Cinema opens in Kashmir city after 14 years but few turn up

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN
Associated Press

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A multi-screen cinema hall has opened in the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir for the first time in 14 years. It’s part of the government’s push to showcase normalcy in the disputed region that was brought under India’s direct rule three years ago. But decades of a deadly conflict, bombings and brutal Indian counterinsurgency campaign have turned people away from cinemas, and only about a dozen viewers lined up for the first morning show, a Bollywood action movie. The 520-seat hall with three screens opened Saturday under elaborate security in Srinagar’s high security zone that also houses India’s military regional headquarters. Tens of thousands have died since Kashmiri militants launched a bloody insurgency in 1989 that was met with a brutal response by Indian troops.