India showcases Kashmir to G20 nations
India began showcasing the Himalayan region of Kashmir to tourism officials of G20 countries yesterday, hoping to attract foreign visitors to the territory troubled by a threedecade Islamist insurgency.
The federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been roiled by militant violence since 1989, disrupting a thriving tourism sector in a region called the “Switzerland of India” for its snow-capped mountains, lush meadows, tulip gardens and lakes.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed though the violence has tapered off and domestic tourism has boomed.
Federal tourism minister G Kishan Reddy said a record 18.4-million tourists visited Kashmir last year and the government was expecting that number to strongly grow.
Kashmir tourism officials said the number included only 20,000 foreign visitors, mostly from Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan, and that the focus was now to attract tourists from Europe.
“For the last 30 years, this land of peaceful coexistence of almost all religions had to suffer state-sponsored terrorism by our neighbouring country,”
Manoj Sinha, Jammu and Kashmir’s chief administrator told the opening of the G20 tourism working group meeting in Srinagar.
However, the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “isolated the terror ecosystem”, Sinha told the meeting, which was organised under tight security.
India blames archrival Pakistan for the insurgency, a charge Pakistan denies.
Both nuclear-armed neighbours claim Kashmir in full, rule it in parts and have gone to war over it three times.
The G20 tourism meeting in Srinagar is part of a series of meetings India has organised in the run-up to a summit in New Delhi in September.
Hundreds of people rallied in Kashmir on Monday to protest against India’s decision to host the meeting in the disputed region.
Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, visited Pakistan-administered Kashmir and termed the G20 gathering as illegal.
Pakistan ally China has opposed the meeting and is not attending. Turkey and Saudi Arabia have only sent private tourism officials.