NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR:
India has stepped up safety in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) area due to a rise in assaults from freedom fighters within the run-up to a G20 assembly on tourism within the occupied territory, officers mentioned on Wednesday.
Town of Srinagar, the summer time capital of the occupied territory, is because of host a tourism working group assembly of G20 members on Might 22-24, a part of a collection of conferences forward of a G20 summit in New Delhi in September.
Freedom fighters have stepped up assaults this 12 months within the Jammu area, throughout the mountains from the Kashmir Valley the place Srinagar is positioned.
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Ten troopers and 7 civilians have been killed in 4 assaults in Jammu this 12 months.
Safety officers mentioned they worry the separatists may attempt to promote their trigger with an assault earlier than or throughout the G20 assembly.
“The timing of those assaults is worrisome as they’re deliberate simply earlier than the G20 assembly,” mentioned a senior Indian military officer within the area. He declined to be recognized as he’s not authorised to talk to media.
Army and law enforcement officials mentioned that they had intelligence data that freedom fighters would possibly goal a military-run faculty in Jammu and take college students hostage.
In response, such colleges had been shut and courses moved on-line till after the G20 assembly, they mentioned.
Safety businesses should not taking any probabilities in Srinagar, officers mentioned.
Vijay Kumar, chief of police in IIOJK, instructed Reuters that commandos had been deployed within the metropolis and members of a counter-terrorism power can be on stationed in varied locations.
Srinagar has been on the centre of the insurgency by separatists in opposition to Indian rule since 1989. Tens of 1000’s of individuals have been killed as a consequence of violence by Indian forces within the occupied valley. Pakistan accuses India of violating the rights of Kashmiri Muslim individuals.