Pakistan Role In Kashmir Unrest In Focus As Government Fixes Strategy

Pakistan Role In Kashmir Unrest In Focus As Government Fixes Strategy.

 

KASHMIR PROTEST

NEW DELHI:

As unrest and curfew continued in Kashmir for the third day in a row, the government's top ministers met security and intelligence officials today and blueprinted strategy that includes drawing the support of major opposition leaders, dispatching senior community leaders to quieten the thousands of angry young stone-throwers, and making it clear to Pakistan that its attempts to inflame the tension will be severely blocked.

Since Friday, when Burhan Wani, the 22-year-old commander of the Hizbul mujahideen was killed, protestors have been enraged, attacking security forces and setting police stations on fire.

29 people have died and over 800 are injured in the clashes.

There is enough information we have about Pakistan, role in aiding and abetting trouble in the Kashmir region," said Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office and a lawmaker from Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has issued a statement which eulogizes Wani, provoking a warning from Delhi for Islamabad to "refrain from interfering" in India's internal affairs.

Monday's meeting was attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who was rushed back from Africa where he was accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Home Minister has briefed key opposition leaders including Mayawati, Sonia Gandhi, Omar Abdullah, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sitaram Yechury to forge consensus on handling the crisis.

The army and security forces have been urged to adopt "a more judicious use of force", said a source, as they take on hostile demonstrators who crowded the streets for a third day despite a curfew in all 10 districts of the Kashmir Valley.

PM Modi is expected to review the situation in Kashmir in a cabinet committee meeting tomorrow.

The government is keen to resume the Amarnath Yatra and ensure thousands of worshippers are not inconvenienced. 

Sources say top officers are worried that stalling of the yatra

 will be seen as the government's inability to control law and order and guarantee safe passage to devotees who come from all over India for the exacting pilgrimage.

As the situation quietens, community elders will be enlisted in cooperation with the state government in an attempt to reverse the perception of a heavy-handed administration and people-unfriendly security forces.

Wani was just 15 when he joined the Hizbul Mujahideen,

 the largest terrorist group in Kashmir. He rose through the ranks quickly, leveraging a growing resentment against the security forces with a firm grip on social media, where he posted pictures of himself and other young men with weapons.

  

Thousands attended his funeral on Saturday.

Sources say the situation is improving but that the government is sending more troops to the Kashmir Valley to prevent any escalation of violence encouraged by Pakistan or militants within Kashmir.

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