NEW DELHI:
Dubai has signed an accord to build infrastructure in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) region, the Indian government said on Monday, at a time when the Himalayan region is seeing a resurgence in violence.
No figure for the value of the accord was given.
The memorandum of understanding by Dubai is the first investment agreement by a foreign government in the region following the withdrawal of Kashmir’s autonomy and the division of the Muslim-majority state into two territories directly ruled from New Delhi.
According to the New Delhi government, the agreement signed with Dubai will result in infrastructure building, including industrial parks, IT towers, multi-purpose towers, logistics centres, a medical college and a speciality hospital.
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“The world has started to recognize the pace (at) which [occupied] Jammu and Kashmir is traversing on the development bandwagon,” Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said in a statement.
The statement said different entities from Dubai had shown keen interest in investment in occupied Kashmir.
However, investment is fraught with risks in the heavily militarised region as evidenced by a spate of militant attacks on civilians and a widespread crackdown by security forces that has left several people dead.
On Monday, Indian authorities moved thousands of migrant workers in Kashmir to safer locations overnight while hundreds have fled the Himalayan valley after a wave of targeted killings.