Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 23: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh accompanied by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and other top officers of the Union Home Ministry are visiting Kashmir exactly after a month of their first visit to the Valley to review security situation in the Valley and find out the groups, with whom dialogue can be initiated to contain the 46-day long unrest, which has claimed 66 lives and left nearly 6000 injured.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Singh’s announcement for two-day visit to the Valley came just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre was ready for dialogue on Kashmir within the framework of Indian Constitution and that it wants peace and normalcy to be restored in the Valley.
Sources said Rajnath Singh would meet Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her Ministers in Srinagar to elicit their opinion on containing unrest, which has entered into 46th day with no let up in the protests. He was likely to have separate meetings also with Governor NN Vohra and the Chief Minister.
“The Home Minister was likely to meet some delegations and individuals at Nehru Guest House, Srinagar both the days after his arrival in Srinagar around 11 am tomorrow to seek their view point on the situation including steps required to be taken by the Centre and State Governments to restore peace in the Valley, which has been shattered after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen divisional commander Burhan Wani on July 8,” they said, adding many groups were ready to come forward to meet the Home Minister and civil administration in Kashmir was in touch with these groups and has asked them to keep ready with their memorandums.
Rajnath Singh will also meet top brass of civil administration, Jammu and Kashmir Police and heads of para-military forces including CRPF and BSF for review of the situation, the kind of protests they were facing in Kashmir and presence of militants within the protesters, which has been observed quite often and it has been seen that the militants were encouraging teen-agers to target security forces installations and police camps.
Rajnath will return to New Delhi on Thursday afternoon.
Rajnath had visited Kashmir for two-days on July 23 and 24 and met cross-sections of people besides the Government representatives to ascertain their views on the situation and measures required to control them.
Sources said the visit of the Union Home Minister to Kashmir within a couple of days after major Opposition parties of Jammu and Kashmir met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and sought his intervention for restoration of peace in the Valley. The Opposition parties were encouraged by the response given to them by the Prime Minister, who had called for dialogue to solve Kashmir problem and coordination between Government and Opposition to contain the unrest.
Sources said there were reports that the Union Home Minister was likely to take forward the stand of the Prime Minister for dialogue on Kashmir problem by holding meetings with cross sections of society and eliciting their opinion to contain 46-day long unrest in the Valley.
“There have been reports that some of the groups, which had refrained from meeting the Union Home Minister during his visit to Srinagar a month ago, were now ready to come forward and apprise him of their problems and seek to address grievances of the public,” sources said.
The Home Ministry has already ordered deployment of the Border Security Force (BSF) in parts of Srinagar to check the protests. For past quite some time, the BSF had been withdrawn from the capital City and replaced by para-military Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Still, it was the CRPF, which was tackling the protests in most parts of the Valley along with Jammu and Kashmir Police.
According to sources, Rajnath Singh could also visit some parts of the disturbed Valley and meet the people there during his two-day stay in Kashmir.
This is Rajnath’s second visit to Kashmir during the ongoing turmoil, the first one being on July 23 and 24 and this one on August 24 and 25. He is the only Union Minister to visit the Valley during 46-day long unrest in Kashmir.
A high level expert committee, constituted by the Home Minister last month to seek alternate to pellet guns, is also on the job and has received several significant suggestions from various security agencies, experts and other stake holders including the Army.
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