Neelum Valley:
The hotels are empty and the roads deserted at the beginning of what is normally the maximum tourist season in the midst of the imposing spikes and the lush valleys of the Ajk Valley, as the threat of attack of India progresses.
The high season in the coldest climates of the Neelum Valley, the AJK tourist center, begins in May as temperatures increase around the rest of the country.
“It has been a really bad start,”
Muhammad Awais said, a 22 -year -old photographer in a popular picnic.
Tourism is the life line of the Neelum Valley, which attracts more than 300,000 visitors every year of all Pakistan, according to the district administration.
Much of the local population depends on approximately 350 guest houses, which employ thousands of families.
“Our livelihoods depend on tourism, and without it, we suffer,” Awais told AFP. “The way things are developed is very slow, and our work is greatly affecting.”
This week, the police and the soldiers of the army control points prevented tourists from entering the valley, allowing only local residents through the control point. Instead, tourists were told to return to Muzaffrabad.
“It is extremely disappointing that the government did not warn us or advise against visiting,” said Salem Uddin Siddique, who traveled from the Islamabad capital with his family.
“Our hopes are now discontinuous,” said 69 -year -old retired accountant.
However, some tourists continued to get unchanged. “We do not believe that the threat of a possible war is serious,” said Mudasar Maqsood, a 39 -year -old factory worker from Kasur, who was blocked along with his friends to enter the valley.
“We must not interrupt our routine life,” he added.
Raja Iftikhar Khan, president of the Private Tourism Association, said the situation could become “extremely serious.”
“This interruption has been devastating for all those linked to tourism,” said “we don’t want war, no sensible businessman never does.”
