Official says Israel has asked citizens to stay away from Valley

Parvez, however, said he has not received any official communication in this regard. This is for the first time Israel has asked its citizens to stay away from Kashmir, a favoured tourist destination. When Europe issued an advisory against travelling to Kashmir in 1990 — the year militancy broke out in Kashmir — Israel decided against it.

Official figures put the number of Israeli tourists visiting Kashmir and Ladakh at 8,000-10,000 per year. Israeli tourists used to visit Kashmir even during the peak of militancy when most foreign nationals chose to stay away. There has been only one instance of Israeli tourists being targeted — in 1991, when militants abducted seven Israeli backpackers from a houseboat in Srinagar.

Last year, Kashmir’s official grand mufti Bashir-ud-din asked Israeli tourists to leave the Valley during a conflict between Israel and Gaza. However, he later said he had asked the tourists to leave for their own safety. The latest advisory comes as Kashmir witnesses unabated anti-Israel protests. Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called for shut-down on Thursday to protest against the attack on Gaza.

BJP takes out anti-Israel rally
While the NDA government at the Centre has refused to condemn Israeli raids on Gaza, BJP workers in Srinagar have taken the opposite stand. Taking out a rally in Srinagar for the first time, BJP workers and leaders, led by the party’s state vice-president G M Mir, shouted slogans against Israel Wednesday. “Set fire to the Israeli parliament” and “We are with you, oppressed people of Gaza” were two such slogans the workers chanted as they marched towards Srinagar’s press enclave, party flags in hand. The rally, which comes ahead of the Assembly elections, is being seen as an attempt to cash in on the sentiment against Israel in the Valley.     ENS