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Amit Shah directs officials to tackle situation firmly
New Delhi: The targeting of minorities and outsiders in the Kashmir Valley came up during the National Security Strategy Conference (NSSC) meeting chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday
New Delhi:
The targeting of minorities and outsiders in the Kashmir Valley came up during the National Security Strategy Conference (NSSC) meeting chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday.
During the meeting, attended by police chiefs of all the states and UTs as well as director generals of central paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies, Shah asked the security officials to deal with the flare-up of targeted violence in Jammu & Kashmir with a fort hand, an official familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
A multi-agency pan-India effort has begun to completely neutralize Pakistan backed terror networks involved in the targeted killings of minorities and non-local labourers in Jammu and Kashmir, other people familiar with the mater added. Thus far 11 civilians, including five labourers have been killed by terrorists in the valley this month.
As part of the coordinated crackdown, central agencies including the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), and the anti-terror and intelligence units of states will continuously share inputs about outfits such as The Resistance Front (TRF) and Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), while police forces will track and arrest sleeper cell members, overground workers and financiers of terror groups operating from Kashmir and other parts of the country, the people added. TRF is believed to be front for the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is already probing a larger conspiracy in the targeted killings and has arrested nine persons and raided over two dozen places linked with TRF. Its investigations reveal that the targeted killings are part of a well-hatched conspiracy from across the border to create an atmosphere of fear in valley and derail the government’s efforts to increase industrial activities there, a senior counter-terrorism official said on condition of anonymity.
“Pakistan based handlers of proscribed terror outfit LeT and their associates based in J&K had conspired to cause extensive terror activities for harming general public. They had planned that responsibility for the terrorist acts so committed would be taken by the pseudo-acronym TRF so as to maintain plausible deniability and evade law enforcement agencies,” NIA said last week in a statement.
During Monday’s meeting, Shah, who has been closely monitoring the situation in J&K , and the police and security officials also discussed strategies to deal with terrorism, left wing extremism, cyber-terrorism, narco-terrorism, the radicalization of young people and the general law and order issues in various states.
