G20 officials arrive in disputed Kashmir as India largely puts region’s intense security out of view

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SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Delegates from the Group of 20 nations arrived in Indian-held Kashmir on Monday for a tourism meeting condemned by China and Pakistan, as authorities dramatically reduced visibility of security in the disputed region’s main city.

The meeting, scheduled for later on Monday, is the first major international event in Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the semi-autonomous region of Muslim-majority territory in 2019. Indian authorities hope the meeting will show that the controversial changes have brought “peace and prosperity” to the region.

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Delegates will discuss topics such as green tourism and destination management. Side events were also organized on ecotourism and the role of films in promoting tourism destinations.

On Monday, the district’s main city, Srinagar, was quiet and the roads were not clean at all. Most of the security checkpoints have either been removed or camouflaged with booth-like security posts made of G20 banners behind which security officials stand.

Officials said hundreds of officers received special training in what they call “invisible policing” for the event.

Shops in the city center also opened earlier than usual after several meetings between trade representatives and security officials. But the authorities closed the main road to the convention center to civilian traffic and closed many schools in the city.

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Monday’s measures were in stark contrast to the security measures imposed in the days leading up to the event. A massive security cordon has been placed around the venue on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar with elite marine commandos in inflatable boats patrolling the water. The commercial center of the city is established, with new roads covered in lions leading to the convention center by the lake and electricity poles lit up in the colors of India’s national flag.

“We had a unique meeting,” the G20’s chief coordinator in India, Harshvardhan Shringla, told reporters on Sunday. He said the event will have the highest representation of foreign delegates as compared to the previous tourism meetings held in India in the states of West Bengal and Gujarat earlier this year.

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Last week, the UN special rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, said the meeting would uphold “a facade of normalcy” while “gross human rights violations” continue in the region. India’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva dismissed the statement as “baseless” and “unwarranted allegations”.

India’s tourism minister, Arvind Singh, told reporters on Saturday that the meeting was “not only to showcase (Kashmir’s) potential for tourism, but also to signal globally the restoration of stability and normalcy in the region.”

The region remains one of the most heavily armed in the world, home to hundreds of thousands of Indian troops. In 1989, a violent separatist insurgency broke out in the region, which sought independence or merger with Pakistan. India responded with a brutal counter-insurgency and tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels were killed in the conflict.

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India’s crackdown intensified after 2019 when New Delhi took the region under its direct control. Since then, the Territory’s residents and media have been largely silenced. The authorities confiscated dozens of homes and arrested hundreds of people under strict anti-terror laws. The government says such measures are necessary to stop what it calls the “ecosystem of terrorism”.

The authorities have also introduced new laws that critics and many Kashmiris fear could change the demographics of the region.

The G20, which is made up of the world’s largest economies, has a rotating presidency with different members setting priorities each year. India leads the group in 2023.

India has been promoting tourism in Kashmir as a sign of peace since the 2019 decision. But the region, known for its Himalayan foothills, has for decades been a major domestic tourist destination. Millions of visitors arrive in Kashmir every year and enjoy an eerie peace maintained by security checkpoints everywhere and armored vehicles and soldiers patrolling.

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However, agriculture remains the mainstay of Kashmir’s economy, and the tourism industry contributes only about 7% of the region’s GDP.

China, with which India is locked in a military stand-off along the unmarked border in the Ladakh region, boycotted the event. And Pakistan, which controls part of Kashmir but, like India, claims the entire territory, also criticized New Delhi for holding the meeting in Srinagar.

Both argued that such meetings could not be held in the disputed territories.

India dismissed Pakistan’s criticism, saying the country was not even a member of the G20.