Ban on tourists in IOK lifted

JAMMU: Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) governor Satya Pal Malik on Monday lifted the ban on tourists and said that they will be allowed in IOK from Thursday. The move comes two months after the restrictions were first imposed.

In August, the Indian government cancelled the Amarnath yatra and advised pilgrims and tourists to curtail their stay in IOK “immediately”, keeping in view the “latest intelligence inputs of terror threats”.

“Governor Satya Pal Malik has directed that the home department’s advisory asking tourists to leave the valley be lifted immediately. This will be done with effect from 10.10.2019,” said the IOK government, according to international media reports.

On September 29, the Indian government announced polls for the Block Development Councils (BDC) on October 24 across the IOK.

A spokesman said the governor was briefed about the BDC elections.

“He was informed that there is active interest in the BDC elections and most of the seats of chairpersons of BDCs would be filled,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.

The IOK governor, the spokesman said, was informed that as BDC elections were party based, the delegations of parties whose leaders are in jail are being allowed to meet party presidents so that they can take a decision on elections and authorise someone to approve candidates.

On Sunday, two delegations from the National Conference (NC) met senior party leaders Farooq and Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on in what was a rare political meeting in IOK since at least 50 politicians were put under detention on August 5, when IOK was stripped of special status and bifurcated into two so-called union territories.

The delegations demanded that Kashmiri politicians be released and said there was little scope for participation in the upcoming local body polls if senior leaders remained under detention.

“When the entire leadership is under arrest, there is a complete lockdown and a communications blockade, how is it possible to contest the block development polls,” Hasnain Masoodi, the member of parliament from Anantnag, who met both the Abdullahs, was quoted as saying.