Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik on Monday lifted the ban on tourists and said that they will be allowed in the state from Thursday. The move comes two months after the restrictions were first imposed.

In August, the Centre cancelled the Amarnath yatra and advised pilgrims and tourists to curtail their stay in the Valley“immediately”, keeping in view the “latest intelligence inputs of terror threats”.“Governor Satya Pal Malik has directed that the Home Department’s advisory asking tourists to leave the valley be lifted immediately. This wil lbe done with effect from 10.10.2019,” said government of Jammu and Kashmir.OnSeptember 29, the government, to encourage grassroots-level leadership,announced polls for the Block development Councils (BDC) on October 24 acrossthe state.

The government spokesman said the governor was briefed aboutthe BDC elections.“He was informed that there is active interest in the BDCelections and most of the seats of chairpersons of BDCs would be filled,” thespokesman said.The governor, the spokesman said, was informed that as BDCelections were party based, the delegations of parties whose leaders are injail are being allowed to meet party presidents so that they can take adecision on elections and authorise someone to approve candidates.

On Sunday, two delegations from the National Conference (NC)met senior party leaders Farooq and Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on in what was arare political meeting in Kashmir since at least 50 politicians were put under detention on August 5, when Jammu & Kashmir was stripped of special status and bifurcated into two Union Territories.The delegations demanded thatKashmiri politicians be released and said there was little scope forparticipation in the upcoming local body polls if senior leaders remained under detention. “When the entire leadership is under arrest, there is a complete lockdown and a communications blockade, how is it possible to contest the block development polls,” asked Hasnain Masoodi, the member of Parliament fromAnantnag, who met both the Abdullahs. Devender Rana, chief of the Jammu unit ofthe NC, said the working committee of the party could decide on a poll strategyonly after the Abdullahs are released. “If the political process has to start then these people have to be released,” he added.