Tourists wait for buses to leave India-Occupied Kashmir on Aug. 3. Tauseef Mustafa—AFP
Anxious tourists flee India-Occupied Kashmir after New Delhi ‘terror’ warning
Thousands of tourists and students scrambled to get places on planes and buses leaving India-Occupied Kashmir on Saturday after the Indian government warned of the threat of “terror” attacks.
Thousands of military reinforcements were arriving in the Himalayan territory, also claimed by Pakistan, where a three-decade old insurgency has left tens of thousands of dead.
The Jammu and Kashmir state government said late on Friday that tourists should leave “immediately” because of new intelligence about “terror threats” to a major Hindu pilgrimage in the region.
Anxious tourists, including some foreigners, flooded the airport at the main city, Srinagar, on Saturday, many without tickets for flights that day. Visitor numbers have been boosted by the Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage, which draws hundreds of thousands of Hindus each year. The pilgrimage has been cancelled because of the scare. A huge security force had been guarding the route even before the alert. A second smaller pilgrimage, the Machail Mata Yatra, in Jammu region was also cancelled Saturday.
“Passengers who were scheduled to return in coming days have turned up in panic at the airport today,” said the manager of one airline operating the Delhi-Srinagar route. “It’s chaotic and not many will manage seats unless there are additional flights.”
Hundreds of Indian students from outside India-Occupied Kashmir were evacuated in buses. “All the non-local students have left the campus for their respective states,” said an administrative official at the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar.
Kashmiri residents formed long lines outside petrol stations, food stores and bank cash machines on Friday night after the alert was announced. But the queues eased on Saturday.
The military head in India-Occupied Kashmir, Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, alleged on Friday that a sniper gun and a mine with Pakistani markings had been found on the route of the Amarnath Yatra. “This proves Pakistani attempts to attack the Yatra,” claimed Singh, who has 500,000 forces in India-Occupied Kashmir battling the insurgency.
India and Pakistan divided Kashmir when they became independent in 1947 but both claim it in full and have fought two of three wars since over the territory. New Delhi has admitted that 10,000 extra troops were sent to India-Occupied Kashmir a week ago. Media reports on Friday said a further 25,000 had been ordered there. The government has declined to say how many are in the new reinforcements.
While military authorities and the state government highlighted the security risk, India-Occupied Kashmir politicians have raised fears that the troops are sign that the Hindu nationalist government could carry out a threat to scrap the region’s special status under the constitution. Political leaders in the territory have warned that cancelling constitutionally guaranteed rights, which mean only state domiciles can buy land in the region, could spark unrest.
Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik, who is named by the New Delhi government, said “unnecessary panic” was being created by “rumors.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has refused to say whether it is about to scrap the constitutional article, though he has often spoken against it.