Envoys from EU, Australia to not take part in Centre's 2-day tour of J&K

Envoys from countries which are members of the European Union (EU) and Australia will not be a part of the delegation that will go on a two-day tour to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday (January 9) at the Centre’s invitation.

Sources from Europe told NDTV that the envoys from Europe did not want a guided tour, and that they wanted to “meet people freely of their own will”.

The EU countries are also understood to have conveyed that they would visit the Union territory on a different date. They also seemed to have stressed on meeting three former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir — Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti — who are under detention.

As part of tomorrow’s delegation, 16 envoys, primarily from Latin American and African countries, will be travelling to Jammu and Kashmir where they will meet civil society members and will be briefed on the security situation in the Union territory, officials said on Wednesday (January 8).

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On the same day, the envoys will be taken to Jammu, where they will meet Lt Governor G C Murmu and other officials before returning to the national capital the next day, they added.

Sources said envoys of a number of countries had requested the government for a visit to Kashmir to get a first-hand account of the situation prevailing in the Valley following the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 there.

The move will be part of India’s diplomatic outreach to rebut Pakistan’s propaganda against it on the Kashmir issue. India had reached out to the P5 countries and all the world capitals, putting forward its perspective on its decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two Union territories.

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After India announced its decision to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year, Pakistan reacted angrily and mounted a major diplomatic offensive against New Delhi on the issue. Pakistan has also downgraded diplomatic ties by expelling the Indian envoy.

This will be the second visit of a foreign delegation to Kashmir since August 5, 2019, the day when the Centre withdrew special status of the state and also bifurcated it into union territories — Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier, a delegation of 23 EU MPs was taken on a two-day visit to assess the situation in the Union territory by the International Institute for Non-aligned Studies, a Delhi-based think tank.

However, the government had distanced itself from the visit of the delegation and Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy informed Parliament that the European parliamentarians were on a “private visit”.

(With inputs from agencies)