Indian Kashmir linked to Dubai by weekly flight
Saturday, February 14th, 2009Air India launched the first international commercial flights from Srinagar in Indian Kashmir on Saturday, a move it is hoped will boost tourism in the troubled Himalayan territory.
State-run Air India will operate weekly flights between the insurgency-hit city and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Previously the only international flights out of Srinagar were charter planes to take Kashmiri Muslims to Saudi Arabia during the Haj season.
Kashmir was a major tourist destination before 1989, when a dozen Islamic rebel groups kicked off an insurgency demanding Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. The conflict has killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.
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