India orders students, visitors to leave Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India — Thousands of Indian students and visitors were fleeing Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday after the government ordered tourists and Hindu pilgrims visiting a Himalayan cave shrine “to curtail their stay” in the disputed territory, citing security concerns.
Meanwhile, tensions flared along the highly militarized Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, as Pakistan accused India of using cluster munitions to target the civilian population, killing two people.
Hundreds of Indian and foreign visitors, including some Hindu pilgrims, congregated Saturday outside the main terminal at the airport in Srinagar, the region’s main city, seeking seats on flights out of the region. The Indian air force flew 326 tourists out of Srinagar, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Tourists and pilgrims also took buses out of the region after authorities went to hotels in the tourist resorts of Pahalgam and Gulmarg on Friday evening, telling them to leave. Authorities also bused out hundreds of Indian students from some colleges in Srinagar.
Out of 11,301 tourists, only 1,652 remained on Saturday, the India news agency reported.
The order on Friday cited the “prevailing security situation” and the “latest intelligence inputs of terror threats with specific targeting” of the annual Hindu pilgrimage as reasons for the advisory.
The order came after officials suspended the pilgrimage for four days on Thursday due to bad weather along the route. The pilgrimage began on July 1 and more than 300,000 pilgrims have visited the icy cave so far this year, according to officials.
The order has intensified tensions after India’s announcement that it was sending thousands more troops to one of the world’s most militarized areas, sparking fears in Kashmir that New Delhi was planning to scrap an Indian constitutional provision that forbids Indians from outside the region from buying land in the Muslim-majority territory.
In its election manifesto earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party promised to do away with special rights for Kashmiris under India’s constitution.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s military accused Indian forces of using banned cluster munitions along the Line of Control in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir, killing a 4-year-old boy and a woman. It said another 11 villagers were critically wounded.
“This is violation of Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law,” the military said in a statement. “This blatant Indian aggression against all international norms exposes true character of Indian Army and their moral standing.”
The Indian army rejected the Pakistani claim. It said Indian soldiers killed five attackers while foiling an attempt by gunmen from Pakistan to target an Indian post.
Indian responses are only against military targets and “infiltrating terrorists who are aided by [the] Pakistan army,” another statement by the Indian army said.
Authorities in Pakistan-held Kashmir ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents along the frontier.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, and each claims the territory in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.
About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.