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Srinagar, Kashmir under Indian administration – A delegation of foreign envoys, including from African, European and Latin American countries, began their two-day tour of Indian-administered Kashmir amid heightened security and spontaneous closure in parts of the region.
Shortly after arriving in Srinagar, the main city in the region on Wednesday, the envoys were taken to a college in Budgam, central Kashmir, where they met a number of people, including representatives of the organs. newly elected premises.
After visiting the Budgam Town College in Magam, where locals observed a closure, the envoys visited the historic marble mosque on the shores of scenic Lake Srinagar.
An official told Al Jazeera that the envoys came from Chile, Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, from Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Bangladesh, Malawi, Eritrea, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal. , Malaysia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and the European Union.
This is the third visit by foreign envoys to the region since New Delhi’s abrogation of Kashmir’s limited autonomy in August 2019, implemented with a crippling lockdown and a communications blackout that lasted for several months.
‘Event management’
Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of the region and chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), described the visit as “the management of events by the BJP government”.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Mufti told Al Jazeera. “It is a guided tour for which they [Indian government] people selected for meetings. It’s not like anyone who wants to talk can go.
Mufti said the purpose of the visit seemed to “show the sense of normalcy in Kashmir”.
“We are not allowed to meet with the families of victims of human rights violations. It’s artificial and a facade.
A team of 23 MEPs, including some from far-right parties, visited Kashmir in October 2019, three months after the repeal of Article 370.
In February last year, the government took a group of 15 foreign envoys to Srinagar for a two-day visit.
On Wednesday, shops and commercial establishments remained closed in Srinagar, and dozens of Indian armed personnel occupied main roads and highways.
Authorities also removed five security bunkers from the city’s main roads, which residents criticized, saying it was done to give “a false sense of normalcy to visiting envoys.”
Officials said this was done to facilitate movement on busy roads.
“It’s to create a false reality. People have been deprived of dignity, economic prosperity and everything they own for the past three years, ”a trader told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity, in Srinagar.
“The people were completely silenced.”
“Public relations exercise”
Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a political analyst in Kashmir, told Al Jazeera that the Indian government had tried to “commercialize” the repeal of Section 370.
“They tried to market it internationally without any success. The visit of the envoys is part of the same exercise. There is a paradox here. On the one hand, the repeal is their internal affair and on the other, they bring in foreign envoys.
This is the third visit by foreign envoys to the region since New Delhi’s abrogation of Kashmir’s limited autonomy in August 2019, implemented with a crippling lockdown and a communications blackout that lasted for several months. [Shuaib Bashir/Al Jazeera]
Noor Ahmad Baba, a regional political scientist, echoed these views, adding that “the visit does not mean much to the Kashmiris.”
“It is only relevant to the government as there have been many doubts about the situation in Kashmir after the repeal of section 370. It is more of a public relations exercise because there has been a globally critical opinion of the decisions and policies of the Indian government. “
The envoys flew Thursday to the southern city of Jammu where they are to meet with various delegations, political representatives and security officials.
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