SRINAGAR: A 16-member delegation of foreign diplomats on Thursday arrived in Srinagar to have a firsthand assessment of the situation in Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370.
This was the second high-profile delegation after a group of far-right European Union delegation visited the Valley earlier.
On their arrival at Srinagar technical Airport on Thursday morning, they were straightaway taken amid tightened security cover to Badamibagh Cantonment where they met top brass of army.
The delegation comprised of US ambassador, diplomats from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Norway, Maldives, South Korea, Morocco, and Nigeria.
Brazil’s envoy Andre Aranha Correa do Lago was also scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir. However, he backed out because of his preoccupation here, the officials said on Wednesday.
Envoys from the European Union (EU) countries are understood to have conveyed that they will visit the union territory on a different date and are also believed to have stressed on meeting the three former chief ministers — Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti — who are under detention.
Officials said envoys of several countries had requested the government for a visit to Kashmir to get a first-hand account of the situation in the Valley following the August 5 decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 and bifurcate it into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
In Srinagar, the New Delhi-based diplomats met a selected group of politicians, civil society members and media persons at The Lalit on Gupkar.
“We met them expressed the pain we felt after abrogation of Article 370. We spoke facts and problems Kashmiris have been going through. We told them political activities will start only when they are released,” former PDP minister Altaf Bukhari told reporters here after meeting the delegation.
The visit of the delegation came at a time when three former chief ministers are under detention since August 5. Besides, dozens of politicians are under detention at MLA Hostel in Srinagar.
Democratic Nationalist Party president Ghulam Hassan Mir, who met the delegation, said that they told them about what happened in Kashmir post abrogation of the Article 370.
“There was no bloodshed which shows how well the Government of India managed the situation. Now the ball is in their court to show what development can be done which was prevented by the Article 370,” he added.
The delegation included Sheikh Noor Muhammad, Rafi Mir, Majid Padder and Congress politicians Shoaib Lone.
With inputs from PTI

Junaid Nabi Bazaz