Criticism of envoys' visit to J&K unfounded: MEA

New Delhi: Defending the visit of foreign envoys to Jammu and Kashmir, the External Affairs Ministry on Thursday said the objective of the visit was to see first-hand efforts to normalise the situation there and termed the criticism that it was a "guided tour" unfounded.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said a similar visit to Kashmir can be organised in the future including EU envoys.

The team of 15 envoys which included the US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster arrived in Srinagar on Thursday on a two-day visit to J&K, the first visit by diplomats since August last year when the state's special status was revoked and it was downsized to a Union Territory.

Officials said envoys of several countries had requested the government for a visit to Kashmir to get a first-hand account of the situation in the Valley following the August 5 decision. This is the second visit of a foreign delegation to Jammu and Kashmir since then. Earlier, Delhi-based think tank International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies took 23 EU MPs on a two-day visit to assess the situation in the Union Territory.