When former Kashmiri independence advocate Hafiz Mohammad Sikander Malik filed nomination papers for the Jammu and Kashmir's election starting Wednesday, the first poll since India revoked the region's semi-autonomy,

India is organizing first regional elections in Jammu and Kashmir in a decade. For its residents, the chance to choose their own government seems to have brought a new air of optimism amid the never-ending violence.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, residents are voting in elections that some hope will lead to restoration of the territory's statehood, which ended when it became a federally governed territory in 2019.