Caravan News
NEW DELHI — The Congress on Saturday hit out at the Modi government for spreading fears in Jammu and Kashmir with its Advisory on Friday asking tourists and Amarnath Yatra pilgrims to leave the Kashmir Valley “immediately” because of new intelligence about terror threats.
The Advisory has created natural scenario of havoc as tourists including foreigner crowded Srinagar airport on Saturday, many without tickets and a large number of vehicles carrying pilgrims and tourists drove out of the valley.
Local residents formed long lines outside petrol stations, food stores and ATMs on Friday night after the alert was announced. But the queues eased on Saturday.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad addressing a Press conference said: “The Home Ministry order has scared citizens. Tourists and pilgrims have never been asked to leave abruptly like this…The government is trying to create an atmosphere of hate, saying that Kashmir is unsafe for outsiders. We condemn this decision by the government of India.”
The Advisory is seen as an unprecedented move as pilgrims and tourists have never before, even at the height of militancy, been urged to leave Kashmir, which has seen a massive build-up of troops over the past week.
The Advisory for tourists coupled with the deployment of additional troops in the valley with no clear reason have sent local Kashmiri leaders including former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah into a tizzy and left the citizens at the mercy of rumours.
National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah on Saturday reportedly met State Governor Satya Pal Malik to find out what was happening in the state and why nothing was being done to scotch rumours if those were baseless. He apprised the Governor about rumours surrounding Article 35A, Article 370, delimitation and even trifurcation of the state.
“The Governor assured us that in all these issues, no preparation is being made to make any announcement,” Omar said.
Omar said when Parliament starts functioning the Centre should make a statement on what was the need to end the Amarnath Yatra and pull out tourists from the Valley.
