India’s G20 tourism meet begins in J&K

A G20 tourism meeting began yesterday under tight security in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), as New Delhi seeks to project an image of normalcy in a region wracked for decades by violence.

Both China and Pakistan have condemned holding the event in the disputed Muslim-majority territory, which is split between New Delhi and Islamabad, both of whom claim it in full.

Over the decades an insurgency seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan has seen tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels killed.

But India wants to show that what officials call "normalcy and peace" are returning to the region after New Dehli revoked its limited autonomy and took direct control in 2019, imposing an extended lockdown.

Since then, the rebels have largely been crushed -- although young men continue to take up arms -- and the annual death toll, once in the thousands, has been on a downward trend, with 253 fatalities last year.

Now India is promoting tourism in the region, with its spectacular mountain scenery and signs at the airport declaring it "paradise on earth".

More than a million Indian citizens visited last year, to the delight of local tourism businesses. But dissent has been criminalised, media freedoms curbed and public protests limited, in what critics say is a drastic curtailment of civil liberties by New Delhi.

Police said last week that security had been beefed up "to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20" meeting, and yesterday soldiers and armoured vehicles were deployed at multiple locations in Srinagar.

But many checkpoints -- wrapped in metal mesh and barbed wire -- had been 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 People's Anti-Fascist Front, a new rebel group that emerged in Kashmir after 2019, issued a statement condemning the event and threatening to "deploy suicide bombers".

"Today, tomorrow or day after. It will come," it said.

The three-day gathering will take place at a sprawling, well-guarded venue on the shores of Dal Lake in Srinagar.

Two Indian government ministers are attending, but several Western nations are sending only locally based diplomatic staff.

G20 member China, which has its own territorial disputes with India, has refused to attend, and no delegations are expected from Turkey or Saudi Arabia.