OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: A G20 tourism meeting began on Monday under tight security in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), as New Delhi seeks to project an image of normality in a region wracked for decades by violence.
Both China and Pakistan have condemned holding the event in the disputed territory.
In the past, said Indian science and technology minister Jitendra Singh, a similar event to the G20 meet would have been accompanied by a call from Islamabad for a general strike, “and the shops would be shut in Srinagar”. But now people were “going about with their activity”. “The common man walking in the streets of Srinagar today wants to move on,” he told the meeting’s first event. “He’s seen two generations having got lost at the altar of these incompatible times.”
China opposes G20 tourism meeting in IIOJK, will not attend
Police said last week that security had been beefed up “to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20”, and on Monday soldiers and armoured vehicles were deployed at multiple locations in occupied Srinagar.
But many checkpoints — wrapped in metal mesh and barbed wire — were dismantled overnight, and some paramilitary police stood hidden behind G20 advertising panels in what appeared to be an effort to minimise the security forces’ visibility. The three-day gathering is taking place at a well-guarded complex on the shores of Dal Lake in occupied Srinagar.
Residents have chafed under the stepped-up security measures, with one describing the situation as “just a facade” on Monday.
Hundreds have been detained in police stations and thousands, including shopkeepers, have received calls from officials warning against any “signs of protest or trouble”, a senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity. To visit IIOJK, foreign journalists require special permission, which is not normally forthcoming, though it has been granted for the G20 meeting. The permits are valid only for coverage of the event itself and limited to the city of occupied Srinagar. Holders are required not to “propagate anti-India narratives”, nor visit “terrorist-infested places without prior permission”.
The People’s Anti-Fascist Front, a new rebel group that emerged in the region after 2019, issued a statement condemning the G20 meeting and threatening to “deploy suicide bombers”.
“Today, tomorrow or day after. It will come,” it said.
Questions have been raised over the choice of location.
“Does the Modi government think that tourism can be promoted in closed conference halls next to a scenic lake being patrolled by marine commandos, with surveillance drones overhead?” columnist Bharat Bhushan wrote in the Deccan Herald newspaper.
“Such staged events make it clear that the situation in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) is far from normal.” India holds the G20 presidency for 2023, and has planned more than 100 meetings across the country. Two Indian government ministers are attending the tourism event in occupied Srinagar, but several Western nations are sending only locally based diplomatic staff.
G20 member China, which is locked in a military standoff with India along their mostly undemarcated border in the Ladakh region, has refused to attend, and no delegations are expected from Turkey or Saudi Arabia.
Beijing also stayed away from earlier G20 meetings in Ladakh and in Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as part of Tibet.
Non-G20 member Pakistan controls a smaller part of IIOJK, and accused India of “arrogance” and violating international law by holding the tourism meeting in the territory, triggering a sharp retort from New Delhi.
Last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, said New Delhi was seeking to use the G20 meeting to “portray an international seal of approval” on a situation that “should be decried and condemned”. India rejected the comments. AFP
NNI adds: The Indian government announced that Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Egypt have not confirmed their attendance, indicating they too will skip the meeting, reported the Hindu newspaper. Indian Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh briefed the media in Delhi and said that out of G-20 member countries, China, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia had not confirmed their participation. Among other invited countries, Egypt had not registered so far, Singh added.
China later said it won’t participate. “China is firmly opposed to holding any kind of G-20 meetings in disputed territory, and will not attend such meetings,” the daily quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. While China, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia are G-20 members, Egypt is a special invitee this year. Several prominent Indian journalists including Rana Ayyub had raised questions over Modi’s government ploy.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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