A government order in Indian-administered Kashmir on Friday asked tourists and Hindu pilgrims visiting a Himalayan cave shrine “to curtail their stay” in the disputed territory, citing security concerns and intensifying tensions following India’s announcement it was sending more troops to the region.
The order cited a “prevailing security situation” and the “latest intelligence inputs of terror threats with specific targeting” of the annual Hindu pilgrimage as reasons for the advisory.
Residents in the Muslim-majority Kashmir said they were not happy about the deployment of additional troops and questioned the Indian government’s intentions.
Indian soldiers are ubiquitous in Kashmir and residents make little secret of their fury at their presence in the Himalayan region.
Dilbag Singh, Director General of Police in Jammu and Kashmir said that counter-intelligence personnel numbers in the area had also been boosted.
“Now, in the view of the fresh inputs, we are getting that violence levels are likely to be increased by the militants. So, keeping in view we have tried to strengthen our CI (counter-intelligence) grid on the ground and law and order grid on the ground so that we already told that these troops would give some relief to the troops which are already deployed. There is a time for turnover and they will also come to relax for some time. And then, we would also like to keep our CI grid in as much active form as required,” he said.
In the past, dozens of pilgrims have been killed in attacks blamed on rebels.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and each claim the divided Himalayan territory in its entirety.
Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989.
