India boosts security for G20 meeting in IIOJK after attacks

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR:

India has stepped up security in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) region because of an increase in attacks from freedom fighters in the run-up to a G20 meeting on tourism in the occupied territory, officials said on Wednesday.

The city of Srinagar, the summer capital of the occupied territory, is due to host a tourism working group meeting of G20 members on May 22-24, part of a series of meetings ahead of a G20 summit in New Delhi in September.

Freedom fighters have stepped up attacks this year in the Jammu region, across the mountains from the Kashmir Valley where Srinagar is located.

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Ten soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in four attacks in Jammu this year.

Security officials said they fear the separatists could try to promote their cause with an attack before or during the G20 meeting.

"The timing of these attacks is worrisome as they are planned just before the G20 meeting," said a senior Indian army officer in the region. He declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to media.

Military and police officers said they had intelligence information that freedom fighters might target a military-run school in Jammu and take students hostage.

In response, such schools had been shut and classes moved online until after the G20 meeting, they said.

Security agencies are not taking any chances in Srinagar, officers said.

Vijay Kumar, chief of police in IIOJK, told Reuters that commandos had been deployed in the city and members of a counter-terrorism force would be on stationed in various places.

Srinagar has been at the centre of the insurgency by separatists against Indian rule since 1989. Tens of thousands of people have been killed due to violence by Indian forces in the occupied valley. Pakistan accuses India of violating the rights of Kashmiri Muslim people.