Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 15: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today reviewed Jammu and Kashmir situation at a high-level meeting with top brass of the Home and Defence Ministries especially steps required to keep infiltration to minimum level during winter and utilize the period to eliminate the militants operating within the Valley even during snowfall and harsh weather conditions.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra and senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Incharge Jammu and Kashmir desk attended the meeting and briefed the two Union Ministers on situation prevailing in the State and steps required to maintain peace and normalcy during the winter after near peaceful summer when National Investigating Agency (NIA) arrested number of separatists and businessmen for their involvement in hawala operations, funding terrorists and separatists and fuelling unrest in the Valley.
Sources told the Excelsior that the Home and Defence Ministries have decided to utilize four crucial months of harsh winter in Kashmir to eliminate maximum possible terrorists inside the Valley and, at the same time, ensure that infiltration level was reduced to negligible when majority of infiltration routes will be blocked by heavy snowfall.
“The security forces have been asked to ensure that there was no fresh infiltration of militants into Kashmir during these four months. Simultaneously, Army, CRPF, police would go all out against the militants operating within the Valley. The winter strategy was aimed at reducing number of militants at its lowest,” sources said.
Sources said top brass of MHA and Defence Ministry have been asked to devise winter strategy along with all security agencies operating in Jammu and Kashmir and the local police to ensure that successes achieved against militants this summer continued in the winter as well.
According to sources, the high-level meeting of Home and Defence Ministries decided that there will be no let up in the operations against militants despite the opening up of channel of dialogue by the Centre Government with the appointment of Dineshwar Sharma as Special Representative of the Government on Jammu and Kashmir.
“The talks will go on. Dineshwar Sharma has completed his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir and would undertake another visit to the State after sometime during which he will also cover remote districts of Leh and Kargil. However, as the talks go on, the anti-militancy operations will also continue,” sources said, adding that this aspect has been made clear to all security agencies in the State.
Instead, they asserted, the anti-militancy operations will be further stepped-up in the winter.
According to sources, the situation prevailing along the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC), which were largely peaceful barring few occasional ceasefire violations on the LoC, was discussed in detail. A high-level MHA Study Group, which had visited both IB and LoC on November 10 and 11 to study problems of the border dwellers and suggested permanent solutions to their problems, has already briefed the Home Minister.
However, sources said, the Study Group would finalize its recommendations only after visiting border areas of Kashmir and Ladakh regions. After their recommendations, the Home Ministry was planning to undertake series of measures to address problems of the border dwellers, both on LoC and IB, in such a way that they feel safe even during ceasefire violations by Pakistan.
Sources said the Centre was satisfied with the impact the NIA raids had in choking terror funding in Kashmir as Intelligence inputs suggested that terrorists, separatists and Over Ground Workers (OGWs) were clearly running short of funds.
“Lack of funding has contributed a lot in reducing violence in Kashmir,” they observed.
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