Neelum Valley: The hotels are empty and the roads are deserted at the beginning of what is normally the maximum tourist season in the midst of the imposing and lush valleys of Azad Jammu and Kashmira, as the threat of attack of India progresses.
Tensions between countries with nuclear weapons have shot themselves since the attack of the pahalgama in Kashmiro controlled by India in which 26 people were killed on April 22.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, gave his “full operational freedom” to respond, while Islamabad earlier this week warned that they had “credible intelligence” that India was planning imminent strikes.
The high season in the coldest climates of the Neelum Valley, the AJK tourist center, begins in May as temperatures increase around the rest of the country.
“It has been a really bad start,” said Muhammad Awais, a 22 -year -old photographer in a popular picnic.
Tourism promotes the economy of Neelum Valley, attracting 300,000 visitors annually
Tourism is the life line of the Neelum Valley, which attracts more than 300,000 visitors every year of all Pakistan, according to the district administration.
Much of the local population depends on approximately 350 guest houses, which employ thousands of families.
“Our livelihoods depend on tourism, and without it, we suffer,” Awais told AFP.
“The way things develop is very slow, and our work is badly affecting.” This week, the police and the soldiers of the army control points prevented tourists from entering the valley, allowing only local residents through the control point.
Instead, tourists were told to return to the main city of Muzaffrabad.
“It is extremely disappointing that the government did not warn us or advise against the visit,” said Salem Uddin Siddique, who traveled from the Islamabad capital with his family. “Our hopes are now discontinuous,” said 69 -year -old retired accountant.
‘We don’t want the war’
Islamabad has denied any participation in the attack last month in Pahalgam and the uncomfortable neighbors have issued a series of punitive diplomatic measures of Tit-Forfor Tat.
The two nations in southern Asia have exchanged shots for nine consecutive nights along the militarized control line, according to Indian Defense sources.
International pressure has accumulated both in New Delhi and Islamabad to solve their differences through conversations.
On the very fortified border of India, the residents of the agricultural villages along the Chenab River have sent the families of the border, remembering the terror of the last important conflict between the two nations in 1999.
There has also been an exodus of tourists on the Indian side of the border since Pahalgam’s attack.
The Indian authorities have greatly promoted the region as a holiday destination, both for skiing in winter and to escape the suffocating heat of summer.
The AJK government has ordered religious schools to close and urged residents to store food. However, some tourists continued to get unchanged.
“We do not believe that the threat of a possible war is serious,” said Mudasar Maqsood, a 39 -year -old factory worker in the eastern city of Kasur, more than 630 km, which was blocked along with his friends to enter the valley.
“We must not interrupt our routine life,” he added.
Raja Iftikhar Khan, president of the Private Tourism Association, said the situation could become “extremely serious.”
“This interruption has been devastating for all linked to tourism,” he said. “We don’t want war, no sensible businessman never does.”
Posted in Dawn, May 4, 2025
