Four pro-India Kashmiri political parties and two Indian political parties, including the main opposition Congress Party, said in a joint statement that India's move "unrecognizably changed the relationship" between the region and New Delhi.

Officials lifted a curfew in the restive region's main city of Srinagar late Tuesday, but said restrictions on public movement, transport and commercial activities would continue because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Representatives from countries including Germany, Canada, France, New Zealand, Mexico, Italy, Afghanistan and Austria are on a two-day visit.

The two nuclear-armed neighbours have two of their three wars over Kashmir after gaining independence from British rule in 1947.

India and China fought a war in 1962 and since then have been unable to resolve their border dispute.

Jammu and Kashmir will be clubbed as one union territory with some 12.2 million people and Ladakh, with a population of less than 300,000 spun off into another.

The group, drawn from 11 countries, will assess the situation in Kashmir, Indian officials said Monday.

But as the crackdown continues, Kashmiris have quietly refused to resume their normal lives, confounding India at their own economic expense.

A government spokesman said however that internet services will remain suspended for now. Authorities fear that insurgents and separatists will use the internet to provoke anti-India protests in the region.

The government instructed tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave on Aug. 2, three days before India stripped the Muslim-majority region of its statehood and decades-old semi-autonomy.