City
Epaper

Envoys' visit to Kashmir 'important step', says US

By IANS | Updated: January 12, 2020 10:00 IST

The US has called the visit of its Ambassador Ken Juster and diplomats from 15 other countries to Kashmir an "important step".

Open in App

Alice Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, tweeted on Saturday that she was "closely following" the visit of the envoys to Kashmir, describing it an "important step".

Wells, who will be visiting India this week, added: "We remain concerned by detention of political leaders and residents and Internet restrictions. We look forward to a return to normalcy."

The group of diplomats made a two-day visit to the Union Territory on Thursday and Friday to see the conditions there after Jammu and Kashmir's special constitutional status was removed last August.

While some US politic and media have criticised the action by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, the US has officially appeared to support the abrogation of the Constitution's Article 370 on the special status.

Last October, Wells told the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific that the State Department supported the objectives behind it, while not directly mentioning the abrogation.

"The Indian government has argued that its decision on Article 370 was driven by a desire to increase economic development, reduce corruption, and uniformly apply all national laws in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in regard to women and minorities.

"While we support these objectives, the Department remains concerned about the situation in the Kashmir Valley, where daily life for the nearly eight million residents has been severely impacted since August 5," she had said.

Washington has banked on India's democratic institutions - the judiciary and public debates - being able to steer the country.

Bearing this out, the Supreme Court last week ordered the government to review its decision to shutdown the internet in Kashmir, which it declared was a fundamental right, thus taking a step to address Wells's concern.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

( With inputs from IANS )

Tags: Kashmir ValleyAlice WellsindiaState Department
Open in App

Related Stories

CricketIndia vs South Africa 2025 Schedule: Full List of Matches, Dates, Venues and Fixtures

TechnologyOpenAI Offers ChatGPT Go Free for a Year in India; Check All the Features Users Can Now Access

NationalGolden Power: Indian Women Now Hold 24,000 Tonnes of Gold, Outshining Global Investors

MumbaiMumbai Man Pursuing PhD in US Booked for Sexually Abusing Woman on False Promise of Marriage

LifestyleCreative Rangoli Designs for Dhanteras and Diwali 2025 to Welcome Goddess Lakshmi

International Realted Stories

InternationalIndia-Germany bolster defence ties, focus on co-production and regional security

International"No justification, no looking away and no whitewashing": EAM asserts India's "right to defend" against terrorism at SCO

InternationalSouth Korea's FM calls nuclear-free Korean Peninsula 'imperative', never to be abandoned

InternationalTaiwan indicts seven, including Hong Kong national, in major chinese espionage case

InternationalToyota investigates bioethanol production in Fukushima for carbon neutral future