India issues advisory for tourists to Kashmir

A government order in Kashmir on Friday asked tourists and Hindu pilgrims visiting a Himalayan cave shrine "to curtail their stay", citing security concerns and intensifying tensions following India's announcement it was sending more troops to the region.
Kashmir's home secretary, Shaleen Kabra, said in the order that the pilgrims and tourists should "curtail their stay in the (Kashmir) valley immediately and take necessary measures to return as soon as possible."
The order cited "prevailing security situation" and the "latest intelligence inputs of terror threats with specific targeting" of the annual Hindu pilgrimage as reasons for the advisory. The 45-day annual pilgrimage draws hundreds of thousands of people to the hallowed mountain cave, the Amarnath shrine.
The order comes after officials on Thursday suspended the pilgrimage for four days due to bad weather along the route. The pilgrimage began on July 1 and about 300,000 pilgrims have visited the icy cave so far this year, according to officials.
The advisory is likely to escalate the tensions in the region, which has been on edge since last week when India announced it was deploying at least 10,000 more soldiers.
The troop buildup has sparked fears that New Delhi is planning to scrap an Indian constitutional provision that disallows Indians from buying land in the region.
Tourist operators called the advisory an attack on the Kashmir economy.
"The advisory is not about hundreds of thousands of Indian migrant laborers who earn their livelihood in Kashmir. It's about tourists who spend in Kashmir," said Sajjad Ahmed, a tourist operator. "The Amarnath pilgrimage has already been suspended and the handful tourists are told to leave Kashmir. How else would you understand it?"

• India