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Foreign tourists disembark from a boat on the banks of Dal Lake as they prepare to leave Srinagar. Photo: Reuters

Thousands of visitors flee Kashmir, while India-Pakistan tensions flare

  • India has ordered students and tourists to curtail their stay in the disputed territory, citing security concerns
  • Separately, Pakistan has accused New Delhi of using cluster munitions to target the civilian population, killing two people
India
The Indian military on Sunday claimed to have killed several Pakistani attackers trying to cross the de facto border in Kashmir, as tensions ratcheted up in the disputed region and sent thousands of tourists fleeing.
Kashmir has surged back into the spotlight in recent days, just months after a deadly militant attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy claimed by a Pakistan-based group sparked cross-border air attacks.

The nuclear-armed rivals have controlled parts of the Himalayan region since the end of British colonial rule in the subcontinent in 1947. Both claim it in its entirety.

India has deployed at least 10,000 troops there in recent days, with media reports of a further 25,000 ordered to Kashmir. There were some 500,000 Indian security forces already based in the region.

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The Indian army on Sunday said it had foiled an attempt by a Pakistani team of army regulars and militants to cross the Line of Control, the de facto border, dividing Kashmir, killing “five to seven” attackers.

Pakistan denied the claims, describing them as “baseless” as it accused India of using cluster bombs against civilians, killing two people – including a four-year-old boy – and critically injuring 11 others.

New Delhi has denied the charge.

Thousands of Indian students and foreign visitors were fleeing Indian-controlled Kashmir over the weekend after the government ordered tourists and Hindu pilgrims visiting a Himalayan cave shrine “to curtail their stay” in the disputed territory, citing security concerns.

Some congregated outside the main terminal at the airport in Srinagar, the region’s main city, seeking seats on flights out. Most were unlikely to get tickets, however, as authorities had yet to arrange additional flights, officials said.

A resident stands under the damaged roof of a house in Salkhala village, near the Line of Control in Kashmir. Photo: Reuters

On Friday, Indian aviation authorities told airlines to be ready to operate additional flights from Srinagar to ferry pilgrims and tourists out, 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.

The order 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.

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On Thursday, officials suspended the pilgrimage for four days due to bad weather along the route. Over 300,000 people have visited the icy cave since July 1.

The evacuation order has intensified tensions following India’s announcement that it was sending thousands more troops to one of the world’s most militarised 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.

Indian tourists load their luggage onto a passenger vehicle as they prepare to leave Srinagar. Photo:

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.

Rumours had swirled in the region on Friday, ranging from the potential disarming of Kashmiri police forces to the Indian military taking over local police installations and schools being ordered closed, further ratcheting up tensions.

By Friday night, residents in Srinagar and other towns thronged grocery stores and medical shops to stock up on essentials. They lined up at ATMs to take out money and at gas stations to fill up their vehicles.

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However, tensions eased on Saturday, though Kashmiri politicians and the public were eager to know what is to come.

Omar Abdullah, a pro-India Kashmiri leader who has criticised the Modi-led government’s muscular approach in Kashmir, said New Delhi should clear the air in Kashmir.

Ordinary Kashmiris fear the government measures are a prelude to intensifying an ongoing crackdown against anti-India dissenters. Kashmir, a region known for lush green valleys, lakes, meadows and dense forested mountains, has become notorious for security lockdowns and crackdowns.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Pakistani attackers killed, India says
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