IIOJK seeks $4 billion in investments

Occupied region has been under military siege since August 2019

NEW DELHI:

Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) plans to attract investments worth up to $4 billion in the next two three years and would provide security to businesses setting up shop in the insurgency-hit region, its chief said on Saturday.

IIOJK was India’s only Muslim-majority state until August 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government abrogated its autonomous status and put it under siege to ward off protests.

The occupied region’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said his administration was identifying 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares) of land for businesses and that they would make companies feel secure.

“We have an annual budget of 1 trillion rupees ($13.68 billion) for the region and a good amount of that is being used for providing security for businesses,” Sinha said a group of journalists in New Delhi.

The government was also working on organising an investment summit there after a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

“We are in touch with all big business houses,” he said.

In November last year, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had unanimously adopted a resolution condemning India’s illegal action of revoking IIOJK autonomous status and steps to change the demography of the Muslim-majority region.

The world’s largest Muslim organisation demanded Narendra Modi-led government to cancel the issuance of domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris and revoke all unilateral and illegal actions it has taken in IIOJK since August 5, 2019, while refraining from taking any step to alter the existing demographic structure of the disputed territory.

The OIC also condemned “in the strongest possible terms” human rights violations perpetrated by Indian occupation forces in the occupied territory and other such instances of Indian terrorism that have been the source of unspeakable suffering for the innocent Kashmiri people.

(With additional input from News Desk)