Home Minister Amit Shah reviews situation in Jammu and Kashmir

New Delhi 25 Aug,  National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and senior officials of the Centre and the Union Territory administration attended the meeting chaired by Shah.

The meeting discussed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, an official said.

The security review comes following attacks on security personnel, infiltration bids and killings in the Union Territory.

Three infiltrators were killed by security personnel along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kamalkote sector of Uri on Thursday.

There have been at least three infiltration bids by terrorists from across the border in the last four days in Jammu and Kashmir.

A group of terrorists tried to infiltrate into the Indian territory in the Pallanwala sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday night. Alert troops fired at them, forcing them to retreat.

On August 21, soldiers deployed in the Jhangar sector of Rajouri’s Naushera spotted the movement of two to three terrorists on the Indian side of the LoC and challenged them, the officials said.

One of the terrorists tried to flee, but was injured in firing by the soldiers and captured alive. The two other terrorists managed to flee, the officials said. On the intervening night of August 22 and 23, a group of two to three terrorists tried to infiltrate in the Lam sector of Naushera. As they moved ahead into minefields, a series of mines got activated and two ultras were killed on the spot.

Terrorists attacked an Army camp in Rajouri district on August 11, killing four soldiers. The two attackers were gunned down in a shootout after the pre-dawn suicide strike that marked the return of “fidayeen” attackers to Jammu and Kashmir after more than three years.

The government had informed Parliament that till last month, as many as 118 civilians, including five Kashmiri Pandits and 16 other Hindus and Sikhs, were killed in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in 2019.

The killings of Kashmiri Pandits triggered protests by the members of the community, who demanded enhanced security and transfer of government employees to safer locations.

In May, four Hindu pilgrims were killed and at least 20 injured when their bus caught fire near Katra in Jammu. Police suspect a sticky bomb might have been used to trigger the fire.

Article 370, which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated on August 5, 2019 and the state was bifurcated into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.