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Belgian tourists preparing to leave cashmere, Srinagar, August 3, 2019. TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP

India on Friday (August 2nd) called on tourists to leave the Kashmir gunpowder area because of " terrorist threats ", while deploying military reinforcements in the mountainous valley in anticipation of possible unrest.

In a statement, the state government of Jammu and Kashmir called on tourists and pilgrims to leave " immediately " this Himalayan region of northern India, on the basis of " terrorist threats reported by the intelligence services " . Kashmir is a predominantly Muslim territory, also claimed by Pakistan.

According to the head of the army in Indian Kashmir, Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, a sniper rifle and an antipersonnel mine made in Pakistan were discovered on the pilgrimage route of Amarnath, which attracts every year hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims to Kashmir.

" This proves that Pakistanis are trying to attack the pilgrimage, " he told a news conference. India and Pakistan have quarreled over Kashmir since the partition of the British colonial empire in 1947 and clashed in two wars over the region. Indian and Pakistani armies are almost daily exchanging mortar fire over the ceasefire line, which marks a de facto border between the two parts of Kashmir.

Safe reinforcement

Kashmiris and local political leaders see this security buildup as a sign that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government is preparing to revoke special legal rights in this predominantly Muslim region, a potentially explosive decision. According to a police official who requested anonymity, members of the police were " advised " to put their families in a safe place and store food.

A separatist insurgency has also been raging since 1989 in Indian Kashmir, claiming the lives of more than 70,000 people, mostly civilians. New Delhi accuses its neighbor of secretly supporting the armed groups operating in the northern Srinagar Valley, which Pakistan has always denied. The Indian army has also sent at least 10,000 more troops to this region, which is already one of the most militarized in the world.

( With AFP )