NEW DELHI/OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: India has stepped up security in the Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) region because of an increase in mujahideen attacks in the run-up to a G20 meeting on tourism in the Himalayan territory, officials said on Wednesday.

The city of occupied Srinagar, the summer capital of the federal territory, is due to host a tourism working group meeting of G20 members on May 22-24, part of a series of meetings ahead of a G20 summit in New Delhi in September.

Security officials said they fear the Mujahideen could try to promote their cause with an attack before or during the G20 meeting.

“The timing of these attacks is worrisome as they are planned just before the G20 meeting,” said a senior Indian army officer in the region. He declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to media.

Military and police officers said they had intelligence information that militants might target a military-run school and take students hostage.

In response, such schools had been shut and classes moved online until after the G20 meeting, they said.

Security agencies are not taking any chances in occupied Srinagar, officers said.

Vijay Kumar, chief of police in the IIOJK Valley, told Reuters that commandos had been deployed in the city and members of a counter-terrorism force would be on stationed in various places.