The US on Friday asked its citizens to exercise “increased caution” while travelling to India due to “crime and terrorism” and advised them to not to travel to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
In a new travel advisory issued on Friday, the US State Department reduced the India Travel Advisory Level to 2 on a scale of one to 4 with the latter being the highest.
“Do not travel to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (except the eastern Ladakh region and its capital, Leh) due to terrorism and civil unrest.”
The travel advisory also says not to travel within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border due to the potential for armed conflict.
“Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations,” reads the statement.
“Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and government facilities.”
US says it has only “limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in rural areas from eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana through western West Bengal as US government employees must obtain special authorization to travel to these areas”.
The State Department in a separate advisory, a day earlier, had put Pakistan on Level 3 and asked its citizens to reconsider their travel especially its restive provinces due to terrorism and sectarian violence.
Besides, Jammu And Kashmir, the advisory say Maoist extremist groups, or “Naxalites,” are active in a large swath of India from eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana through western West Bengal, particularly in rural parts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and on the borders of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Odisha.
“The Naxalites have conducted frequent terrorist attacks on local police, paramilitary forces, and government officials.
Due to the fluid nature of the threat, all US government travelers to states with Naxalite activity must receive special authorization from the US consulate responsible for the area to be visited. US officials traveling only to the capital cities in these states do not need prior authorization.”
US government employees at the US Embassy and Consulates in India are prohibited from traveling to the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Manipur without special authorization from the U.S. Consulate General in Kolkata.
It says,” incidents of violence by ethnic insurgent groups, including bombings of buses, trains, rail lines, and markets, occur occasionally in the northeast.”
