Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 2: The meeting on internal security convened by Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in New Delhi on June 5 was likely to witness the issues of partial revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), changes in Rehabilitation Policy for militants, raising of five new police battalions and improvement in security scenario being raised by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Omar is among a number of Chief Ministers, who would attend the internal security meeting in New Delhi, which is being held after a gap a little over a year as the last meeting was held on April 16, 2012. The last internal security meeting was held during the tenure of P Chidambaram, who has now switched over to the Finance Ministry.
This would be the first internal security review of the entire country by Mr Shinde, who had taken over as the Home Minister on July 31, 2012.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the internal security meeting would take up the issues like cross-border terrorism and infiltration, steps to curb increasing menace of Naxalism, police modernization and training, law and order problem, communal tensions and other problems faced by the States falling in the domain of the Union Home Ministry.
Sources said June 5 meeting on internal security would be followed by a meeting of the Director Generals of Police (DGPs) of all States to be convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in September this year. An exact date of the meeting was yet to be finalised.
The DGPs meet would, however, be a follow up to June 5 internal security meeting and would discuss the implementation of the measures taken in next Wednesday’s meeting in New Delhi. Last meeting of the DGPs of all the States, convened by the MHA was held from September 6 to 8.
Sources said the cross-border terrorism and cross-border infiltration, which were high on agenda of June 5 meeting, pertained directly to Jammu and Kashmir, which has suffered on account of both. “There has been no let up in both with terrorism and infiltration showing increasing trends in the Kashmir Valley during the past few months though overall in the past one year the militancy and incidents of violence have gone down considerably as compared to previous years,” they added.
Sources said the internal security meeting would also take up sharing of inputs by different Intelligence and para-military agencies with the State police forces.
“Anti Terrorist Squads have already been constituted in various States with different nomenclatures, with a specific mandate to combat terrorism and internal security threats. The Central Government is committed to provide all necessary cooperation and assistance to the State Governments in combating this menace as per the specific proposals from them with regard to these anti terrorism bodies,” sources said.
On his part, sources said, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah would raise the pitch for partial revocation of AFSPA from some parts of the State by citing figures that situation across the State has undergone sea change. They added that Omar was likely to quote figures that violence has gone down in many parts of the State and it was high time to partially revoke AFSPA from some districts.
Sources added that Omar could also raise modification in Rehabilitation Policy by calling for freely allowing the Kashmiri youths to use Nepal route to enter India on way to Kashmir and facilitate their return by the police of different States like Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi.
Nepal is not among the four routes prescribed for return of Kashmiri youths from Pakistan and PoK to their houses. The authorized routes included Uri-Muzaffarabad in Kashmir, Poonch-Rawlakote in Jammu, Wagah in Punjab and Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi.
Sources said the Chief Minister was also likely to ask for raising five more battalions of Indian Reserve Police (IRP) in the State as a gradual replacement of para-military forces and providing job opportunities to the local youth.
He was likely to project vast improvement in the situation in the State on security front though some militancy related incidents continued to take place.
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