‘So much to woo foreigners’: Mehbooba Mufti slams Centre over visit of foreign envoys to Jammu and Kashmir

Former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehooba Mutfi on Friday slammed the Centre over the visit of foreign envoys to the union territory.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief said the people of Jammu and Kashmir are “disregarded & brutalised into silence”, while a lot is done to “woo the foreigners”.

“So much done to woo foreigners who have no stake in the Kashmir issue while the main stakeholders i.e. the people of J&K are disregarded & brutalised into silence,” she tweeted.

For the uninitiated, a group of 24 foreign envoys visited Kashmir on Wednesday and Jammu on Thursday. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, it was aimed at enabling them to witness the union territory’s march on the path of inclusive development and the dynamism in the grassroots democratic institutions following the successful conduct of the recent local polls.

The group comprised envoys from Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cote d’Ivore, Cuba, Estonia, Finland, European Union, Eritrea, France, Ghana, Italy, Ireland, Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Malawi, Netherlands, Portugal, Senegal, Spain, Sweden and Tajikistan.

Both in Srinagar and Jammu, the group interacted with representatives from civil society, including youth from different ethnic, religious and socio-economic communities, local business and political leaders, civil administration and representatives of mainstream media, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, two groups of envoys had visited Jammu and Kashmir. This visit by the third group of Foreign Heads of Missions, was to allow foreign envoys to witness, first-hand, Jammu and Kashmir’s march on the path of inclusive development and the dynamism in the grassroots democratic institutions.

Earlier, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took a dig at the visit of 24 foreign envoys to Kashmir, asking them to send real tourists from their countries to J&K. “Thank you for visiting Kashmir. Now please send some real tourists from your countries to visit J&K. #envoysvisitJK,” the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir said in a tweet.