Gandhi breaks India's public silence on Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India -- Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi, who lost her husband to a suicide bomber, donned a bulletproof jacket and campaigned for her party in Kashmir on Thursday, making the first public speech by a senior Indian official in the insurgency-wracked province in 15 years.

Defying threats from Islamic militants, Gandhi spoke to the crowd of shared pain and how state legislative elections can improve the disputed Himalayan province's future.

"I want to bring you some balm," she said from behind a bulletproof screen and surrounded by elite commandos in Srinigar, the state's summer capital. "This is an election for the future of each Kashmiri. You have to write your destiny with your own hands."