The United States issued a travel advisory for its citizens while travelling to India. It asked the American citizens to exercise “increased caution” while in India.
Citing “crime”, it mentioned rape being one of the fastest-growing crimes in India. The Travel Advisory pointed out that sexual assault has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations.
Mentioning “terrorism”, the US Travel advisory advises US Citizens not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir except the eastern Ladakh region and its capital, Leh due to terrorism and civil unrest and especially within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border due to the potential for armed conflict.
The advisory said that “terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and government facilities.”
Even more importantly, the US government has mandated US government employees to obtain special authorization to travel to the geographical tract from rural areas in eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana through western West Bengal in India. It has said that the US government has limited ability to provide emergency services in these areas. The areas mentioned are known to be infested with Maoist activities.
The United States had put neighbouring Pakistan on Travel Advisory Level 3 a day before. It had advised it’s citizens to advise against travelling to Pakistan. It has put India on Level 2 of the Advisory. The US Travel Advisory is on a scale of 1 to 4 with the latter being the highest.
The adverse travel advisory from the US comes at a time when the visa waiting time for Indias travelling to the US has an estimated wait time of 833 days against 3 for China.
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