India’s G20 tourism meeting in disputed Himalayan region sparks protest

Muzaffarabad —  Protests broke out in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Monday against India’s decision to host a Group of 20 (G20) tourism working group meeting in its part of the disputed Himalayan region.

New Delhi is hosting the key conference in Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar from Monday to Wednesday, a move that Pakistan and China have opposed. China refused to attend the meeting, saying it firmly opposed “holding any form of G20 meetings on disputed territory”.

“We will not attend such meetings,” the Chinese foreign ministry said, according to Bloomberg.

Several protesters demonstrated in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and other cities, chanting: "‘Go India, go back’, and ‘boycott, boycott G20 boycott’,” said government official Raja Azhar Iqbal.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari visited the region and addressed Kashmir’s legislative assembly on Monday. He termed the G20 gathering as illegal, and an attempt by India to seek legitimacy over its control of the disputed region.

“India is misusing its position as G20 chair,” he said, and urged the world to take note of New Delhi’s “gross human rights violations” since India scrapped Kashmir’s independent status in August 2019 and annexed the region as part of its territory.

The G20 tourism working group meeting is the first international event in the region since the annexation.

Indian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for a comment.

Nuclear-armed nations, Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir, which they each claim in full but control parts of.

G20 consists of 19 rich nations and the EU. India at present holds it presidency, and is set to host its annual summit in New Delhi in September.

India hopes the meeting will help revive international tourism in the scenic Kashmir Valley which has been roiled by a violent Islamist insurgency against Indian rule since 1989, although violence levels have fallen in recent years and domestic tourism boomed.

Reuters