Daily Times

Foreign diplomats visited India-held Kashmir on Thursday for the first time since New Delhi stripped the region of special status in August, but some European nations and others declined to go after being refused permission to travel independently.

The two-day trip, which began on Thursday, comprises more than a dozen envoys, including from the United States. They are expected to assess the situation in the disputed Himalayan region.

Reports suggested that diplomats from Australia and several Gulf nations backed out of the visit due to ‘scheduling’ reasons. In addition, diplomats from European Union countries too dropped out of the visit with reports suggesting they wanted to reach out to their contacts on the ground and visit areas which have not been included in the trip organised by the Indian government in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs, Home Affairs and Defence.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that the two-day visit by diplomats from the US, South Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Maldives, Morocco, Fiji, Norway, Philippines, Argentina, Peru, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, and Guyana was requested by some of the New Delhi-based ambassadors.

Raveesh Kumar, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, said diplomats of 15 countries, including the United States, were on a two-day trip ‘to see first-hand the efforts that have been made by the government to normalize the situation’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants to blunt international criticism of its moves in Kashmir and said the situation was fast returning to normal.

The trip includes meetings with the army, politicians, civil society groups and journalists selected by the security services, two officials familiar with the plans said. The diplomats will not be given access to Omar Abdullah or Mehbooba Mufti, the leaders of the two political parties that have historically dominated Kashmir.

Both were among hundreds of political and civil society leaders detained during the August crackdown and remain in custody, and their plight was raised with the delegation, said Ghulam Hassan Mir, a politician that met the group. “We told the visiting delegation the people’s sentiments are deeply hurt with the revocation of special status,” said Saleem Pandit, one of the eight journalists that met the ambassadors. “They were emotionally attached to it.”

Many ambassadors came from smaller nations such as Togo, Niger and Guyana. Countries in the European Union and India’s allies in the Middle East did not go on the trip. Some countries declined their invitation because of the restrictions imposed, according to the officials familiar with the plans and two foreign diplomats in New Delhi. Kumar said India is considering a separate visit for EU nations, and put other absences down to the short notice given to embassies and other scheduling matters.

The August crackdown by India in Kashmir drew international criticism, and diplomats from several countries say they have raised concerns about human rights in the valley with foreign ministry officials. Access to the region for foreign observers, including diplomats, rights groups and journalists, is tightly controlled. Foreign envoys are rarely granted permission to travel outside of Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar. Foreign journalists have not been granted permission to visit since August. Meanwhile, India’s former national security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon has said that India is facing isolation at the international front due to certain controversial decisions taken by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a public hearing in New Delhi, Menon said the perception of India has changed and even friends were taken aback by the recent decisions of Modi. He said the Modi government, by its actions like the adoption of new citizenship law believed to be discriminatory to 180 million Muslims living in the country, had ‘gifted’ adversaries the platforms to attack India.