A delegation of envoys from Europe, Africa, South America and a few OIC member states arrived in Srinagar on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday for assessing the situation following the scrapping of its special status in 2019.
Officials said the envoys from Europe, Africa and four member states of Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) - Malaysia, Bangladesh, Senegal and Tajikistan - arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday morning amid heightened security arrangements.
During the two-day visit, the delegation will assess the ground situation in the newly-carved union territory (UT) by meeting civil society groups, elected representatives, political leaders and students. On the first day of their visit, the envoys drove straight to Magam in central Kashmir’s Budgam district to meet district development council (DDC) members, reports said.
In Magam, the envoys visited a government college where they were received in a traditional way and after the customary rituals by the administration, they interacted with the locals. It was a free-flowing exchange of ideas by the delegation with the locals, the officials said. The envoys were briefed on Panchayati Raj and other government programmes like ‘Back to Village’.
Later in the afternoon, the delegation met Mayor of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), Junaid Azim Mattu and other elected representatives at a five star hotel in Srinagar, where they are putting up. The envoys also visited the revered Hazratbal shrine on the banks of Dal Lake as well.
Parts of Srinagar observed a shutdown to mark the arrival of the envoys’ delegation to Jammu and Kashmir. Shops in city center Lal Chowk and surrounding areas remained shut as authorities deployed extra security personnel to ensure that the visit of the envoys passes off without any untoward incident.
On Thursday, the envoys would visit Jammu where they are scheduled to meet J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, besides some of the DDC members and representatives of some social organisations.
It may be recalled that in October 2019, a group of largely right-wing EU parliamentarians had visited Kashmir, prompting outrage from opposition parties, who had not been allowed to go. The parliamentarians were given a tightly controlled tour of Srinagar.
They met about 15 hand-picked delegations, including traders and students, before being taken for a boat ride in Dal Lake in Srinagar. However, the government had said the delegation was on a “private visit” to the country.
Later in January last year, 16 envoys including the US ambassador to India had visited Jammu and Kashmir and met over 100 people, including senior Valley-based politicians, top newspaper editors and grassroots representatives.