Anurag Thakur-Led Panel to Visit Kashmir in Early July

SRINAGAR: A parliamentary panel is scheduled to undertake a study tour of Kashmir Valley in the first week of July. This will be the first such visit following the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 civilians, most of them tourists, were killed.

The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, will visit Srinagar as part of a multi-city tour that also includes Mumbai and Coorg.

Ahead of the visit, the Jammu and Kashmir government has appointed SP Rukwal, Director of Geology and Mining, as the coordinator.

According to an official, Rukwal will oversee all logistical, administrative, and protocol arrangements.

Two other officers from the Mining Department will coordinate with the Lok Sabha Secretariat to facilitate the visit, the order states.

The visit is significant as it will be the first by any parliamentary panel to Kashmir following the April 22 Baisaran attack, in which 26 civilians were killed.

After the incident, parliamentary committees had refrained from visiting the region. Three such panels—the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs, and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on “One Nation, One Election”—had cancelled or abandoned their proposed visits to Jammu and Kashmir. (KNO)