DELEGATES’ VISIT TO GULMARG CANCELLED

: With the third G20 tourism working group meeting in Kashmir commencing on Monday, the visit of foreign delegates to the famous ski resort town of Gulmarg has been cancelled amid “security concerns”.

The administration has not officially acknowledged the cancellation of the Gulmarg leg, but officials privy to the matter said the visit to the ski resort town is off the table. Notably, the itinerary of the G20 working meeting also skipped any mention of Gulmarg.

The G20 delegates were scheduled to visit the ski resort town on the second day of the three-day event, being hosted to deliberate on the five key priority areas — green tourism, digitalisation, skills, ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises and destination management.

Sources said the visit has been cancelled amid “security concerns” and keeping in view the sensitivity of the situation. The scheduled meetings will instead be held at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) on the second day of the event. For the past two weeks, the government had made highlevel arrangements for the Gulmarg event and top officials held a series of meetings at the resort town, which had been spruced up for the event.

A picturesque bowl-shaped meadow, surrounded by pine trees and steep slopes, in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, some 50 km from Srinagar, Gulmarg is a top tourist destination of Kashmir — with both foreign and domestic tourists visiting the resort round the year, but especially during winters when foreign skiers spend a couple of months at the town.

Additional director general of police Vijay Kumar remained unavailable for comments on the cancellation of the planned Gulmarg visit.