New Delhi, June 30: Pakistan-based extremist organisation Lashkae-e-Tayyeba (LeT) is fomenting trouble in Kashmir and the government is determined to maintain peace in the state, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said at the end of a one-and-a-half hour long meeting with the PM and other ministers and senior officials.
“We have reason to believe that LeT is fomenting trouble in Sopore. Two terrorists who were killed on June 25 in Sopore were also linked with the LeT,” he told a press conference.
He reiterated that the government was committed to restoring normalcy in the state and would extend full cooperation to the state government for the same. He added that the security forces had been asked to exercise maximum restraint, though curfew will be imposed in restive areas for now.
Chidambaram assured that full security would be provided to the annual Amarnath Yatra which began today. He said a decision on Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) would be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security.
As the Kashmir Valley continues to remain tense with violence spreading, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called a high-level meeting to review the deteriorating situation.
The meeting was attended by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister AK Antony, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, Union Home Secretary GK Pillai and officials from security agencies.
Chidambaram said he had constructive discussion with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik and discussed issues like Hafiz Sayeed and terror.
On the Naxal attack that killed 27 CRPF jawans in Chhattisgarh yesterday, the minister expressed grief on the incident. He said the forces were deployed by the state government and areas like Narayanpur, where the attack occurred, were susceptible to Naxal attacks.
“Violation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) by security force personnel would be known only after preliminary enquiry report by DG, CRPF,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Chidambaram appealed to parents in the state to ensure their children stay at home in curfew-bound areas.
Chidambaram’s appeal comes in the wake of several deaths reported during clashes between mobs and security forces over the past few days in the Valley. Most of the dead were teenagers.
Meanwhile, Jammu-based association of oil tankers has refused to ply their vehicles in the Kashmir Valley and Leh, fearing safety.
Police today fired teargas shells to disperse stone-pelting mobs at a few places in Srinagar even as more violence-hit areas were brought under curfew in South Kashmir, where three youths have been killed in alleged CRPF firing.
Protestors, including women, took to the streets at Natipora and Batmaloo areas here and staged demonstrations against the killings that have rocked the Valley for the past few days, police said.
Police and paramilitary forces, which have been deployed in strength to maintain law and order, lobbed teargas shells to disperse the demonstrators at Natipora and Batmaloo in central Srinagar.
Police said there were no reports of any casualty in the clashes during which protestors indulged in pelting stones at security personnel.
However, locals alleged that several persons were beaten up ruthlessly by the CRPF personnel.
Curfew was clamped in Bijbehara, Mattan, Dooru, Kokernag, Achhabal, Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Kulgam district this morning. Efforts were on to enforce the curfew in Sopore, Baramulla and Anantnag and seven police station areas of Srinagar, police said.
—-PTI—