New Delhi: A week after the Baisaran terror attack, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to close around 86 such spots frequented by tourists in Kashmir, ThePrint has learnt.
Among popular spots closed for tourists are the Gurez Valley in Bandipora district and Machil Valley in Kupwara district. Sources aware of the decision making said that a majority of these places were far off from the respectives headquarters and only a handful of tourists used to vist these places.
“Not more than 4 percent of tourists (reaching J&K) used to visit these places,” an official said.
However, 72 tourists places are still open in the Kashmir Valley. Gulmarg, a popular tourist spot in Baramulla district, is one of them.
As concerns grew about the lack of intelligence inputs about threats to tourists and the absence of security measures, government sources indicated a review of security would be undertaken of various tourist spots.
ThePrint earlier Friday reported that the government and security agencies had identified 60-plus locations in Kashmir, which were opened to tourists without sufficient security arrangements following the abrogation of Article 370. It was learnt that the government was keen on keeping those locations open to maintain the messaging of normalcy in the Kashmir Valley, even without the required security measures.
Sources in the security establishment said that a call to close down these tourist spots is a “temporary” move, considering the sensitivity of the Kashmir Valley due to the frequency of anti-terrorism operations. The presence of a large number of tourists in an unsecured area poses a further challenge to the forces, they added.
“There is an active presence of terrorists and their operatives in the valley, and there is no better place than tourist places for them to target again. Prevention of any such attack, even remotely similar to Pahalgam, is the topmost agenda for all the departments, agencies and forces in the valley,” an official told ThePrint.
Another source in the security establishment said that many of these closed spots were trekking tracks, where maintaining round-the-clock security arrangements would have been tough.
“Not all tourist spots have been closed. Only those that required trekking for a few kilometres away from permanent roads have been closed as a precautionary measure. This is not a permanent solution. All these spots will be accessible for tourists from across the country and the world, but only after a thorough security assessment,” another official said.
Meanwhile, security forces in the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday intensified search and operations against terror operatives. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has formally taken over the investigation of the Pahalgam attack from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, has started questioning suspects linked to the attack as well as recording statements of the injured victims and kin of the victims who were shot dead last Tuesday.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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