New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday held a high-level meeting to review the turbulent situation in the Kashmir Valley where 11 people have been killed in street violence instigated by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said.
As the situation continued to be tense in the curfew-bound valley, Chidambaram told reporters that the government was hopeful thet situation will normalise in a few days with strict security measures enforced there.
‘We have asked the chief minister (Omar Abdullah) and other ministers to visit the disturbed areas to take some political action, along with the action taken by security forces,’ Chidambaram told reporters after the one-hour meeting at Manmohan Singh’s residence.
The meeting was attended by Chidambaram, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and senior officials of both ministries and chiefs of the security and intelligence agencies.
‘We are confident that normalcy will be restored in a few days’ in the Valley, Chidambaram said.
The home minister said elements of the Lashkar-e-Taiba were fomenting the trouble and instigating Kashmiri youth to throw stones at security forces.
‘The anti-national forces are clearly linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba,’ Chidambaram told reporters, when asked if the elements he had blamed Tuesday for inciting agitation in the valley were from Pakistan.
He said the LeT was active in the north Kashmir Sopore town, the worst hit by violent street protests.
‘Two militants were killed in an operation on June 25 in Krankshivan colony of Sopore. We believe the militants were from Lashkar. The LeT is active there,’ he said.
Kashmir has been rocked by street violence and retaliation by the security forces for the past two weeks, resulting in the killing of 11 civilians, mostly teenagers, and imposition of curfew in many parts of the valley.
Chidambaram said 53 paramilitary personnel, including an inspector, have been injured.
As the law and order situation worsened in the valley, the state government Wednesday clamped an indefinite curfew in south Kashmir towns of Anantnag, Kulgam and Pulwama while the restriction continued without any relaxation for the fifth day in Sopore and for the second day in Srinagar to curb widespread violence.
Three teenagers were killed in Anantnag town Tuesday as life across the Kashmir Valley remained paralysed for the last four days due to the violence.
Chief Minister Abdullah Tuesday made an emotional appeal for peace, vowing to ensure return of normalcy soon and slammed anti-national and vested interests for instigating mobs to resort to violence.
Chidambaram said the prime minister-led meeting ‘appreciated the statement of Abdullah which has largely corrected some wrongs impressions’.
He said the central government has repeated the directive to paramilitary forces to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with rioting mobs and stone pelters.
‘The central government remains committed to assist the state government in restoring the normalcy’ in the violence-hit Kashmir valley, he said.
The home minister hoped that the annual Amarnath pilgrimage ‘will go off peacefully’.
‘Full protection will be given (to pilgrims). We hope nobody in Jammu and Kashmir will allow himself or herself to be misled even remotely to disrupt the yatra,’ he said.
