Thousands of people tried to flee Kashmir on Saturday (August 3rd) following the publication of a government statement on Friday calling for tourists and pilgrims to leave the country "immediately" because of "terrorist threats reported by information ".
At the same time, India has sent thousands of troops to reinforce the Himalayan region of northern India, which is Muslim-majority, also claimed by Pakistan.
Many worried tourists, including foreigners, tried to leave the country by bus while others rushed to the airport of Srinagar, the main city of Kashmir.
The pilgrimage of Amarnath Yatra attracts hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims to Kashmir in this season. But the ceremonies were canceled due to the threats of unrest. Another less important pilgrimage, the Machail Mata Yatra, in the Jammu region, was also canceled on Saturday.
"The travelers who had to take their flight back in the coming days arrived panicked at the airport today," said the head of an airline serving the Delhi-Srinagar line. "It's chaos," he said.
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.
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.
With AFP