Srinagar, Dec 19: Union home minister Amit Shah Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to review security in Jammu and Kashmir, with a detailed discussion on the roadmap for 2025, sources said. This was the first meeting Amit Shah chaired after the 2024 assembly elections and the formation of a popular government led by Omar Abdullah.
Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, National Investigation Agency Director General Sadanand Date, BSF Chief Daljeet Singh Chawdhary, J&K Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, J&K Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat, ADGP Law & Order Vijay Kumar and ADGP CID Nitish Kumar also attended the meeting.
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Sources told news agency Kashmir News Observer, Amit Shah took a threadbare review of the security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly about recent terror attacks in the Union Territory.
They said that the home minister also had a detailed discussion over the security roadmap for 2025, and the undetected infiltrations reported along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. “Security agencies operating on the ground gave a detailed overview of the new challenges ahead of the new year,” they said.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, who heads the Unified Command (UHQ), represented various stakeholders operating in Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting took place at the Ministry of Home Affairs in North Block, Delhi.
This was the first security review meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah after the assembly elections and formation of Omar Abdullah-led popular government. Earlier, similar meeting was chaired by Amit Shah in June this year.
The meeting also came in the backdrop of sporadic terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir over the past few months. In October this year seven people, including a doctor were killed in a terror attack on a construction site in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. Prior to that, there have been several terror incidents in which outside labourers were targeted.
The meeting, sources said, took note of these incidents and measures to be taken on how to stop such incidents in the future.
Ahead of the meeting, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah also met Amit Shah to discuss several issues, including restoration of statehood and security situation in the Union Territory.
Speaking with reporters after meeting Amit Shah, Omar Abdullah said that the meeting was regarding the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, restoration of statehood. “The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere. The experience and the hurdles that we faced in the past two months after taking over the reins following the formation of the popular government also came up for discussion during the meet,” he said.
On being asked about notifying Business Rules for Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah said that the government of India has nothing to do with it and that these are to be decided by the elected government and the cabinet.
“Cabinet sub-committee will finalise the business rules, cabinet will approve it and then it will be sent to the Lt Governor. The Government of India has nothing to do with it,” he remarked.
He also said that for now the responsibility of security, and law and order lies with the Lt Governor, and he only apprised the home minister that the fight against militancy cannot be fought by creating a vacuum. “I have always said that we cannot fight militancy in a vacuum, but by taking people into confidence and for that we need to take the elected representatives and the popular government in confidence,” he said—(KNO)
