Indian students, tourists leave Kashmir on government orders

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.

Hundreds of Indian and foreign visitors, including some Hindu pilgrims, congregated outside the main terminal at the airport in Srinagar, the region's main city, seeking seats on flights out of the region. Most were unlikely to get tickets, however, as authorities had yet to arrange additional flights, officials said.

Ordinary Kashmiris fear that the government measures are a prelude to intensifying an ongoing crackdown against anti-India dissenters.

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 the region. Authorities also bused out hundreds of Indian students from some colleges in Srinagar.

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 over 300,000 pilgrims have visited the icy cave so far this year, according to officials.

The order has intensified tensions following India's announcement that it was sending thousands of 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.

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.

Rumors had swirled in the region on Friday, ranging from 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.

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 criticized the Modi-led government's muscular approach in Kashmir, said New Delhi should clear the air in Kashmir.

The official did not give a specific number, but he said most of the 20,000 Hindu pilgrims and Indian tourists and the more than 200,000 labourers were leaving the region.

Around 60 international tourists arrived in Kashmir on Saturday, however, the official said. The Indian advisory had cautioned tourists in general, but did not give any specific advice to foreign nationals.

Tensions have run high in the mountainous region since a vehicle laden with explosives rammed into an Indian police convoy on Feb. 14, killing 40 paramilitary policemen, and leading to aerial clashes between the two nations.

India accuses Pakistan of funding armed militants, as well as separatist groups in India's portion of the region that are considered non-violent by international observers.

Islamabad denies the Indian accusation, saying it provides only diplomatic and moral support to the separatist movement.

A driver arranges luggage of tourists as they leave Kashmir in Srinagar on Saturday. Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

The advisory has left the fleeing tourists and pilgrims disappointed. Kashmir touts itself as a "Paradise on Earth", with Dal Lake - a favourite destination centuries ago for Mughal emperors escaping the summer heat of India's plains - and its famous houseboats, mountains and glaciers a major attraction.

Prabakar Iyer, 45, had travelled to Srinagar from the southern Indian city of Bengaluru on Thursday with his family for a 10-day holiday, but they returned on Friday night.

"I was staying in a houseboat on Dal Lake when the advisory was issued. I fail to understand why we are being asked to leave. Everything is normal here," he said.

Labourer Manjit Singh, a carpenter from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh who has been working in Kashmir for the last nine years, also left.

"I am not afraid but the government advisory has created panic and my family wants me back ... I will return if the situation improves," he said.

Reuters