New Delhi: Sixteen envoys will travel to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday where they will meet civil society members and will be briefed on the security situation in the Union Territory, officials said on Wednesday, adding the group will primarily comprise envoys from Latin American and African countries.
The European Union countries are understood to have conveyed that they will visit the Union Territory on a different date and are also believed to have stressed on meeting three former chief ministers — Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti — who are in detention. Government sources said these envoys will undertake a visit at a later date.
Quoting government sources, a report stated that some EU Ambassadors didn't want to be part of the group of envoys visiting Kashmir as they felt "certain restrictions in the programme were unfounded and mischievous". Earlier it was reported that certain European envoys were not keen on a "guided tour" of the region and rather wanted to meet the people and interact with them.
The envoys travelling on Thursday will meet civil society members and receive a briefing on the security situation from various agencies, the officials said. The envoys will also be taken to Jammu where they will meet Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu and other officials before returning to Delhi the next day, they added.
Sources said the envoys of several countries had requested the government for a visit to Kashmir to get a first-hand account of the situation prevailing in the Valley following the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in August.
This will be the second visit of a foreign delegation to Kashmir since August 5 last year — when the Centre withdrew the state's special status and bifurcated it into the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.
A delegation of 23 EU MPs was earlier taken on a two-day visit to assess the situation in the Union Territory by the International Institute for Nonaligned Studies, a Delhi-based think tank.
However, the government had distanced itself from the visit and Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy informed Parliament that the European parliamentarians were on a "private visit".
Thursday's visit is part of India's diplomatic outreach to rebut Pakistan's propaganda against it on the Kashmir issue.
India had reached out to the P5 countries and all the world capitals, putting forward its perspective on its decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two Union territories.
After India announced its decision to reorganise J&K, Pakistan reacted angrily and mounted a major diplomatic offensive against New Delhi. Pakistan has also downgraded diplomatic ties by expelling the Indian envoy.
(With inputs from agencies)
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