New Delhi : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday directed the security forces to go after those instigating youths to indulge in violence in Jammu and Kashmir and try to bring back normalcy in the state within a week. The directive was given during an hour-long meeting the Home Minister had with top security officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, besides others.
Sources said the Home Minister conveyed that the security forces must go after the instigators of the violence in Kashmir Valley and book them, as they have disrupted normal life for 65 days since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on September 8.
Security forces told to bring back normalcy in Kashmir within a week. Thousands of soldiers have been pushed into Kashmir since Friday to strengthen anti-terror operations, from which the focus had shifted following the outbreak of protests since the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani on July 8. Sources said the military would even be deployed in areas it vacated in the last two years after they were considered militancy -free. These are also the areas which have seen the most protests since the death of Burhan Wani.
Singh said that normalcy should be brought back within a week and school and other educational institutions should start functioning as students are the worst sufferers in a prolonged period of turmoil, sources said.
Attempts should also be made to reopen shops and other commercial establishments, the Home Minister told the officials.
Meanwhile, a policeman died and another was injured while seven terrorists were killed in four separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. Three of the encounters were with terrorists who were trying to infiltrate in Tangdhar, Gurez and Nowgam sectors. The other was between the police and a group of terrorists who were holed up in a building in Poonch. The encounter in Poonch started after the police received a tip-off about the presence of two to four heavily-armed terrorists in an under construction government building that’s close to an army camp.
