AJK tourism on risk amid Pakistan-India tensions

NEELUM VALLEY: Heightened tensions between Pakistan and India have led to empty hotel rooms and deserted roads at the start of what is normally the peak tourist season, amidst the towering peaks and lush valleys of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his military “full operational freedom” to respond, while Islamabad earlier this week warned they had “credible intelligence” that India was planning imminent strikes.

High season in the cooler climes of the Neelum Valley, the tourist centre of AJK, begins in May as temperatures around the rest of the country rise.

“It’s been a really bad start,” said Muhammad Awais, a 22-year-old photographer at a popular picnic spot.

Tourism is the Neelum Valley’s lifeline, drawing over 300,000 visitors from all over Pakistan each year, according to the district administration.

Much of the local population depends on roughly 350 guesthouses, which employ thousands of families.

“Our livelihoods depend on tourism, and without it, we suffer,” Awais told AFP, adding: “The way things are unfolding is very slow, and it’s affecting our work badly”.

This week, police and soldiers at army checkpoints barred tourists from entering the valley, allowing only residents through the checkpoint.

Tourists were instead told to return to the main town of Muzaffarabad.

“It’s extremely disappointing that the government did not warn us or advise against visiting,” said Saleem Uddin Siddique, who travelled from the capital Islamabad with his family.

“Our hopes are now dashed,” the 69-year-old retired accountant said.

On India’s heavily fortified border, residents of farming villages along the Chenab River have sent families back from the frontier, recalling the terror of the last major conflict between the rival armies in 1999.

There has been an exodus of tourists on the Indian side of the border too since the attack which targeted Hindu men enjoying the open meadows with their families.

Indian authorities have heavily promoted the region as a holiday destination, both for skiing in winter and to escape the sweltering heat of the summer.

Meanwhile, the AJK government has ordered religious schools to close and urged residents to stockpile food.

However, some tourists continued to arrive undeterred.

“We don’t think the threat of possible war is serious,” said Mudasar Maqsood, a 39-year-old factory worker from the eastern city of Kasur, over 630 kilometres away, who was blocked along with his friends from entering the valley.

“We should not disrupt our routine life,” he added.

Raja Iftikhar Khan, the president of the private tourism association, said the situation could become “extremely dire”.

“This disruption has been devastating for all those tied to tourism,” he said

“We don’t want war — no sensible businessperson ever does”.