SRINAGAR, Occupied Kashmir: India is holding a critical G20 tourism meeting in illegally-occupied Kashmir amid heightened security and opposition from China. According to the BBC, the working group meeting is being held in occupied Srinagar, the summer capital of the federally-administrated territory, from Monday to Wednesday (May 22-24).
This is the most significant international event organized in the region since India scrapped its special status in 2019.
Over 60 representatives from G20 member countries are expected to attend the event. China, however, has said it wouldn’t attend, citing its firm opposition “to holding any kind of G20 meetings in the disputed territory”. Pakistan and India claim Kashmir in total but control only parts of it. The nuclear-armed neighbours have already fought two wars and a limited conflict over the region.
In April, Pakistan, not a G20 member, criticized India’s decision to hold the meetings in occupied Kashmir, calling it an “irresponsible” move.
India said it was “natural” to hold G20 events and meetings in illegally occupied Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh, which are integral and inalienable parts of the country.
In 2019, India divided the Muslim-majority state of illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to create two federally administrated territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Ladakh is a disputed frontier region along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, and both countries claim parts of it.
In Kashmir, India had conducted many security drills in the days leading up to the event. The region has seen an armed insurgency against India since 1989 while the latter accuses Pakistan of stirring the unrest by backing separatist militants, which Islamabad denies.
The illegally occupied region has witnessed increased attacks by suspected militants this year, and security officers have said they are taking measures to prevent any threats designed to derail the meet.
According to reports, Indian Elite security forces – including commandos, National Security Guards, Border Security Force, and police forces – have been deployed in illegally-occupied Kashmir to provide ground-to-air security cover.
According to reports, Security has been boosted around the Dal Lake and the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar, which is the venue for the meeting. Many schools in Srinagar have been closed, some for as long as nine days.
Local opposition leaders, including ex-Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, have criticized the elaborate high-security arrangements and accused the federal India government of making daily life even more difficult for ordinary people. Mufti compared the restrictions in Kashmir ahead of the G20 to that of the notorious United States military prison, Guantanamo Bay.
Last week, Fernand de Varennes, the United Nations special rapporteur on minority problems, had issued a statement, saying the G20 was “unwittingly providing the veneer of support to a facade of normalcy” when human rights violations, political persecution, and illegal arrests were escalating in illegally-occupied Jummu Kashmir. The statement was criticized by India’s permanent mission at the United Nations on Twitter.
