The Union government on Wednesday asked Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his Ministers to visit the disturbed areas so as to tackle the current crisis there politically as well as through security forces.
It also urged the Central Reserve Police Force to exercise the “maximum restraint” and sensitivity while assisting the police in enforcing curfew in the Kashmir Valley, and promised full protection for the Amarnath yatra.
These were among the decisions taken at a high-level meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the Kashmir situation, in the wake of four days of violence and unrest that claimed 11 lives.
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Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who attended the meeting along with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A.K. Antony, said: “We have asked the Chief Minister and other Ministers to visit the disturbed areas to facilitate political action along with action by the CRPF.”
Full backing for Omar
The message that emerged from the 80-minute meeting, senior government sources told TheHindu, was that Mr. Abdullah had to be given full support, and that there should be an end to “the attack from within” the Congress, especially as the BJP has mounted an attack on the National Conference-Congress government and dubbed it “soft.”
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The backchannels established during the Prime Minister's recent visit to Srinagar should be utilised to calm the situation and help to strengthen intelligence to deal with stone-throwing mobs, the sources said.
Mr. Chidambaram praised Mr. Abdullah's statement on Tuesday as being “reasonable, firm and clear.” The Chief Minister had appealed to parents “to counsel their children not to come out and engage security forces in stone-pelting” or to violate curfew orders. He had attributed the crisis to the coming together of anti-national forces and vested interests rather than to bad governance, as his detractors were claiming.
Lashkar involved, says Chidambaram
Mr. Chidambaram said the anti-national forces were clearly linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was active in the Sopore area of the Valley, and that the two militants killed on June 25 also had links with the outfit.
The government, official sources said, had very little option but to back Mr. Abdullah at this moment. This is why Mr. Chidambaram, who was slated to visit Jammu and Kashmir, according to some reports, on July 2, has deferred his visit.
To a question, he said: “I think the Chief Minister, his entire administration and police are engaged in restoring law and order. After things have quietened down, I will then consider visiting [the State].”
Senior officials from the Home Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office attended the meeting.