Prevailing situation in Kashmir drives tourists’ away

Bilal Bashir Bhat
Srinagar, Aug 03 (Only Kashmir): The tourism sector in all seasons’ tourist destination Kashmir is badly hit amid an unprecedented situation in Kashmir following the central government flown as many as 35,000 troops to Valley.
At this peak of the tourist season, the boats in world-famous Dal Lake, hotels at the banks of lake, the tourist places like Pahalgam, Mughal gardens including Nishat and Shalimar used to remain packed, however, due to the prevailing situation all these places are presenting deserted views.
Pertinently, the fear and panic has gripped whole Valley following few developments at the central government level which including the deployment of around 35,000 troops, ordering state police to provide details of the Mosque committee members and fresh advisory for Amarnath Yatris and tourists to curtail their stay in Kashmir valley.
“Keeping in view the latest intelligence inputs of terror threats with specific targeting of the Amarnath Yatra, and given the prevailing security situation in the Kashmir Valley, in the interest of safety and security of the tourists and Amarnath Yatris, it is advised that they may curtail their stay in the valley immediately and take necessary measures to return as soon as possible,” said an order issued by Principal Secretary, Home Department Shaleen Kabra on Friday.
The stakeholders in the tourism industry say earlier this year in February and March when India and Pakistan carried out air strikes the tourist flow witnessed massive dip, adding when tourism industry is gasping for breath the developments at government level has left us in deep slumber.
Expressing serious concern over the prevailing situation, President Travel Agents Association Kashmir (TAAK), Ashfaq Siddiq Dug said ironically the government is becoming the party in decaying the tourism sector, adding the Pulwama attack in February and its backdrop incidents including the airstrikes between India and Pakistan had already worsened the situation. Now, when we are trying to rebound the damage, these fresh developments force us to succumb.
He said over the last few months we made several pleas for an appointment with government administration to submit our quires, but unfortunately there we see no positive response till date, adding, 2014 and 2015 were consumed by devastating floods and state elections, followed by the 2016 uprising. Then it comes Pulwama attack which ultimately drew its effects on Tourism sector.
A prominent hotelier pleading anonymity said, “My hotel used to be jam-packed at this time of the year, however from the last few weeks surprisingly about 70% booking has been cancelled, following the recent developments at government level. He said one fails to understand why government is not taking the tourism industry into consideration before passing such orders.
Meanwhile, the rumors such as “India to invade PaK,” “Article 35 A to be revoked,” “LoC tensions may end in airstrikes,” Trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir state with Kashmir and Ladakh as Union Territories, Jammu a state,” etc are doing the rounds on social media which furthers strengthens the fear and panic among the residents are people intend to visit Kashmir.