A top separatist leader in Indian-controlled Kashmir is calling for a "change of strategy," and says he will run for parliament in upcoming national elections.
Sajjad Gani Lone heads the Jammu-Kashmir People's Conference and would be the first senior separatist leader to run for public office since 1989.Lone says his decision does not represent any change in his ideology.
He says he wants to use the elections "as a method to represent the voice of the Kashmiri people."
Some separatist leaders have called for Kashmiris to boycott the elections that begin next week, but similar calls last year were largely ignored and 60 percent of the region's residents turned out to vote. Separatist groups have long argued that participating in Indian elections would amount to accepting New Delhi's rule in Kashmir.