A day after a tourist from Chennai was killed after he was hit by stones thrown by protesters on the Srinagar-Gulmarg road, the Union Home Ministry on Tuesday held a meeting on creating “sports infrastructure” in the Kashmir Valley.
There was silence on the part of Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the death. Neither did he issue any statement regarding the incident nor convene a meeting with officials. Some leaders of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam met Mr. Singh at his residence and expressed concern over the tourist’s death.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while interacting with presspersons on the sidelines of the Naval Commanders’ Conference in Delhi, said the death of the tourist was “completely condemnable” and not “very conducive” for tourism.
A senior Home Ministry official said the “amnesty package” announced for first-time offenders involved in stone-throwing incidents was not under review and it would continue.
Last November, the Centre had advised the J&K government to withdraw cases against first-time offenders.
An official said 3,685 students and young men got relief under the scheme and cases of another 9,000 people were being considered.
‘Unfortunate incident’
On Tuesday, Jammu and Kashmir Special Representative Dineshwar Sharma held an hour-long meeting with Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and other senior Home Ministry officials to discuss “sports facility for the Kashmiri youth”.
A senior official said Monday’s incident when R. Thirumani Selvan, a tourist from Chennai was killed, was not discussed.
The official said though it was an “unfortunate” incident, efforts were being made to nab the accused. As per government data, more than 1.7 lakh tourists have visited the State till April this year, which also included around 20,000 foreigners.
“I don’t know whether it was inadvertent or knowingly but it is completely condemnable. I am sure the Chief Minister [Mehbooba Mufti] herself is keen on getting more tourists to Kashmir because that will also help in restoring normalcy. So, if that has been a stated desire, for a stone pelting incident to have hurt and killed a tourist, it’s certainly not conducive to that,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
