Kashmir Digits

Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high level meeting in New Delhi to evaluate the ongoing Kashmir situation with security of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley discussed.

The meeting was convened in the wake of eight targeted killings by militant groups especially Lashker-e-Taiba in the Kashmir Valley whose victims included non-Muslims, security personnel, an artist and local civilians.

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.

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The home minister reviewed the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir with special focus on protection of Kashmiri Pandits living in the valley, a ministry official said.

Republic Network quoted sources as saying that the meeting decided creation of over eight safe zones in the Valley for the safety and protection of minorities.

Scores of Kashmiri Pandits, who were employed under a prime minister’s package in 2012, have been staging protests threatening mass exodus since the killing of Rahul Bhat, who was shot dead by militants on May 12 in the Chadoora area of Budgam district in central Kashmir.

Bhat’s killing sparked demonstration by around 6,000 employees at various places who demanded their relocation outside the Valley.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday made it clear the employees would not be moved out of the Valley but transferred to safer locations.

Official also said the recent escalation in targeted militant violence would not lead to any change in plans for holding the annual Amarnath Yatra which is scheduled from June 30-August 11.

Two persons — a bank employee and a brick kiln labourer — were killed in Kashmir on Thursday while another labourer was injured in two separate incidents. The bank manager was the eighth and the labourer was the ninth victims of targeted killings in Kashmir since May 1.

A woman teacher hailing from the Samba district of the Jammu region was shot dead by militants at a school in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Tuesday. On May 18, militants 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 while television artiste Amreen Bhat was gunned down in Budgam two days later.

The high-level meeting chaired by Shah was the second such exercise in less than a fortnight.

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.