PC meets Omar; reviews situation in J&K

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir at a high-level meeting in Jammu attended by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and stressed the need for a strong coordination among various agencies to stamp out militancy there.

Chidambaram, who arrived in Jammu on a two-day visit to the state on Thursday, discussed the latest intelligence inputs and cross-border infiltration at the meeting that lasted over an hour, official sources said.

Various security organisations put forth their point of view concerning different security-related issues, including applications received from the kith and kin of misguided youths, who aspire to return to their native places in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.

Before the review meeting, Chidambaram discussed various issues relating to governance, law and order situation, counter-terrorist operations and political developments over a breakfast meeting with the Chief Minister, the sources said.

Besides, Omar, the security review meeting was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Director Intelligence Bureau Nehchal Sandhu, state Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda, DG CRPF K Vijay Kumar, Joint Secretary (Kashmir) K Skandan, top officers of BSF, CRPF, police, Army, Intelligence agencies.

Later the Home Minister along with the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and the DGP flew to Kishtwar where he held another meeting to review the law and order situation with the local officials of five districts of Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi and Udhampur.

L K Advani was the last Home Minister to have visited Kishtwar in 1998, they said. Chidambaram had on Thursday held a closed-door meeting with top state Congress leadership to discuss the "political aspirations" of three regions of the state.

The meeting assumed importance in view of the parallel rallies organised by Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress and another by dissident Congress leadership, which was addressed by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.