16 visiting envoys are mostly from Latin American and African countries will meet civil society members and will be notified on the security situation there
The European Union country delegates have conveyed their message to centre that they will visit the UT on a separate date, thereby, insisted on meeting the prominent leaders of the region who are still under detention including former Chief Ministers, Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.
The group of delegates will be meeting Lt Governor GC Murmu and other officials in Jammu, before returning to Delhi on Friday.
The visit is to take place after five months of the abolition of Article 370 by the government of India and union territories were carved out of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to sources, the visit is arranged after a number of countries had requested the government of India to conduct a visit of Kashmir for them so that they could get the first-hand information of ground situation after the dissolution of Article 370. Since the abrogation of Article 370, several political leaders have been arrested, internet services remained suspended, and the region has been under heavy security cover.
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The visit for the envoys is also considered as a diplomatic plan by India to bust Pakistan's propaganda against it on the Kashmir issue.
India had reached out to the P5 countries and all the world capitals, putting forward its perspective on its decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two Union territories.
Ever since India announced its decision to abrogate Article 370 and reorganise Jammu & Kashmir last year, Pakistan has tried to corner India on the issue of Kashmir globally and has also downgraded diplomatic ties by expelling the Indian envoy.
The visit comes as the second delegation of foreign envoys visiting Kashmir post-dissolution of Article 370. A delegation of 23 EU MPs had earlier visited Kashmir to access the ground situation in UT. International Institute for Nonaligned Studies, a Delhi-based think tank which had organized the visit then faced criticism for choosing people with a certain ideological bent for the visit.
Owing to the controversy the state government had distanced itself from the visit then and Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy informed Parliament that the European parliamentarians were on a "private visit".