Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of a series of targeted killings in Kashmir, leading to widespread anger and protests in the state and calls by Kashmiri Pandits employed under the Prime Minister's Package to migrate out of Kashmir en masse.
Ten persons have been killed in targeted killings since May 1 and three have been killed this week — teacher Rajni Bala on Tuesday, bank manager Vijay Kumar and labourer Dilkhush Kumar on Thursday.
On May 18, terrorists had entered a wine shop at Baramulla in North Kashmir and threw a grenade, killing one person from the Jammu region and injuring three others. Policeman Saifullah Qadri was shot dead outside his residence in Srinagar on May 24. Television artiste Amreen Bhat was killed in Budgam on May 26.
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National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Army Chief General Manoj Pande, and Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha were among those who attended the meeting. Besides the security situation in Kashmir, security arrangements for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra also figured Shah's meetings, the official told PTI.
Scores of Kashmiri Pandits, who were employed under a prime minister's package in 2012, have been staging protests threatening mass migration out of Kashmir since the killing of Rahul Bhat, who was shot dead by terrorists on May 12 in the Chadoora area of Budgam district in central Kashmir.
The high-level meeting chaired by Shah was the second such exercise in less than a fortnight.
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Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Director of Intelligence Bureau Arvind Kumar, Director General of Central Reserve Police Force Kuldiep Singh, Border Security Force chief Pankaj Singh, and Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh among other key officials took part in the meeting.
Earlier, Shah had an informal meeting with LG Manoj Sinha, IB chief Arvind Kumar, RAW chief Samant Goel, and DGP of Jammu and Kashmir Dilbagh Singh.
(With PTI inputs)
