Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will on Friday chair a meeting of the integrated security grid, Unified Headquarters, in the context of Thursday’s fidayeen attacks and to review the security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir.
Authoritative sources said the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt. Gen. Sanjeev Chachra, and the GOC of the Nagrota-based 16 Corps, among other senior Army, police and intelligence officials, would participate. After sending Principal Secretary (Home) Suresh Kumar and Director-General of Police Ashok Prasad to the site of the second encounter at Samba, Mr. Abdullah flew to Jammu. He held a meeting with senior officials of the police and civil administration, before laying wreaths on the bodies of the slain police and Army personnel at the District Police Lines and consoling the bereaved families there. Later, he visited the injured civilians and policemen at the Government Medical College, and then drove to Hiranagar, where he called on the families of the policemen and civilian who died in the attack at a police station.
Earlier at a news conference here, Mr. Abdullah said the fidayeen attack that occurred after over 10 years of peace in Jammu and ahead of a scheduled meeting between the Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers was aimed at derailing the peace process. He said the timing as well as sites of the attacks were a significant indication of sabotage of the dialogue process.
“Obviously, certain political parties could try to mount pressure on the Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh] to change his decision of meeting with the Pakistani Prime Minister,” Mr. Abdullah said. He described the attacks as the handiwork of elements inimical to peace and those who wanted to keep turmoil alive in J&K.
“On the basis of my observation of such incidents in the last 25 years of militancy, I would speculate that this was a fresh infiltration as that area is known for infiltration but doesn’t have a history of harbouring militants,” Mr. Abdullah said. The militants who launched the twin attacks had reached there 12 or 24 hours before the strike, he added.