Don't link tourism with Chinese incursion: Omar Abdullah

Srinagar, April 26 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Friday said linking the Chinese incursion into Ladakh with the region's tourism prospects would not be right.

"Can we please not link the Chinese incursion to tourism? The Chinese troops are too far to bother any tourists coming to Leh," Omar Abdullah said on micro-blogging site Twitter Friday.

Just the fact of the chief minister speaking of tourism and incursions in the same breath, however, is likely to send alarm bells ringing; doubts are likely to arise about the safety of tourists thronging Leh and other places in the Ladakh region.

"When we use the words 'Chinese troops' and 'tourists' in the same sentence, we create doubts where none existed," the chief minister tweeted.

While the chief minister has been cautious in expressing his views on the presence of Chinese troops in Indian territory, his uncle and legislator Mustafa Kamal made a novel suggestion: New Delhi could seek the help of Pakistan to deal with Chinese presence on Indian territory.

Kemal was talking to media persons on the sidelines of a party function in north Kashmir's Baramulla town Thursday, when he said: "Chinese incursion in Ladakh is a grave issue and there is no harm if India approaches Pakistan to settle the issue with China as Pakistan is a close friend of China."