A delegation of foreign diplomats arriving in Srinagar to witness ongoing voting in Srinagar
PTK NEWS DESK
SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 25 (PTK): Nearly 16 diplomats of select embassies, including the United States, European Union, Russia and Australia, will arrive in Srinagar today to observe the voting in the second phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. The delegation includes four representatives from the Ministry of External Affairs.
According to a highly placed source, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had invited a group of senior diplomats, mainly from the American, European and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) embassies, to visit Kashmir “for a first-hand account of the ongoing election process in J&K.
Official reports state that the MEA had extended invitations to around 20 diplomats of select embassies functioning in New Delhi, including the U.S., France, Germany, Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia. 16 diplomats had accepted the invitation. They are expected to arrive in Kashmir on a two-day visit today when the Srinagar is going to the polls.
Sources told PTK that another group of diplomats is likely to visit Kashmir before the third phase on October 1 as well, when north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts go to the polls.
The last time the government conducted such tours was in 2020, in the aftermath of the move to split the State and reduce it to two Union Territories, when groups of Ambassadors from different countries as well as Members of the European Parliament were taken to Jammu and Srinagar to quell concerns over the security measures taken, the Internet clampdown, and the arrests of hundreds of political activists in the Valley after August 5, 2019.
Notably, diplomats were also welcomed in Srinagar for a visit during the G20 tourism meet in May 2023.
According to the media reports, in the run-up to the Assembly election in J&K last month, senior diplomats of Germany and the U.S. travelled to Srinagar and met a number of politicians, including the National Conference’s (NC) Omar Abdullah, Peoples Conference chief Sajjad Lone, and a number of other mainstream politicians in a bid to assess the ground situation.(PTK)
