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Narayanan to lead team to J&K

Vinay Kumar

It will assess the prevailing security scenario in the State

— Photo: AP

Violence unabated: A protester being chased away by a paramilitary soldier in Jammu on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Concerned at the continuing protests in Jammu and Srinagar over the Amarnath land row, the Union government is rushing a high-level Central team to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday to take stock of the overall security scenario in the sensitive border State.

National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan will head the three-member team on the day-long visit to Srinagar. Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh will also accompany Mr. Narayanan, government sources said here.

Top government officials are also likely to visit Jammu, where protests have been going on for more than a month demanding withdrawal of Governor N.N. Vohra’s June 30 order cancelling transfer of land at Baltal in Kashmir Valley to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board.

The NSA, along with the Home Secretary and the Defence Secretary, will make an overall assessment of the prevailing security scenario in the State, particularly in the Valley where pro-Pakistan sentiments have found expression in some sections. The State, now under Governor’s rule, is also scheduled to go for Assembly elections in October.

After the all-party meeting on the Amarnath land row, convened earlier this month at the initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the decision relating to the State’s security review was taken at the highest level in the government. With incidents of the Pakistani Army violating the ceasefire at the Line of Control increasing, and infiltration being encouraged from across the border, the government appears steadfast in its decision to monitor the situation in the State at the level of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Sources pointed out the PMO was already involved in monitoring the implementation of decisions in the State taken over the past three years at the Round Table Conferences, convened by the Prime Minister.

Protesters court arrest

Luv Puri writes from Jammu:

There was no let-up in the agitation in Jammu against the revocation of land allotment to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. But there was no violence and curfew was relaxed throughout the day.

People courted arrest at various places as part of the three-day ‘jail bharo andolan’, but all remained peaceful, Abdul Qayoom Manhas, Deputy Inspector-General of Jammu, Samba and Kathua, told The Hindu.

Authorities lifted curfew for the day in Kishtwar, Jammu and Udhampur districts and for nine hours in Samba district. At Lakhanpur, the entry point to the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway 1 A, things returned to normal as stranded vehicles were cleared. Supplies of essential commodities made their way to Jammu.

Suicide bid

In support of the agitation, yet another youth made a suicide bid in the border town of R.S. Pura. Jitender Kumar (19) consumed poisonous substances at his home.

Agrees to talks

PTI reports:

The group spearheading the Amarnath agitation in Jammu region agreed on Tuesday night to hold talks with a panel set up by the Governor to find a solution, days after it spurned an offer for negotiations. “We have agreed to hold talks,” Dr Nagendra Singh, a spokesman of the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarash Samiti told PTI in Jammu after the State government renewed its invitation to the group for a dialogue to evolve an amicable solution on all the “core issues.”

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