Officials say the train will help the troubled region, but many Kashmiris see it as a tool to entrench the Indian government’s control.

Passengers emphasised that the Katra-Srinagar Vande Bharat, which takes less than three hours for a 190km trip, would reorient travel between Kashmir and the rest of India

The world’s highest railway bridge, an ambitious piece of engineering across a mountain valley in Kashmir, was opened Friday by Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, just weeks after a deadly tourist massacre in the Himalayan region sparked a brief conflict with neighboring Pakistan.

India is committed to efforts to develop its restive territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, accusing neighbour Pakistan of seeking to destroy livelihoods there with April's deadly attack on tourists.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Kashmir on Friday, his first visit to the contested Himalayan region since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan last month, and opened a strategic