Srinagar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has told the top security brass of J&K to fix a deadline to wipe out remaining militants from Kashmir soil so that peace and development becomes a permanent feature in the State and people heave a sigh of relief, reliable sources privy to series of meetings chaired by Shah in Srinagar, revealed to KNO, on the condition of anonymity.
During his two-day visit to Kashmir, Shah chaired a series of meetings at SKICC, on the banks of Dal Lake here. Sources said that even as Shah expressed his satisfaction over the overall improvement in the situation but stressed on the fact t hat “its time to crush militants forever.”
“In a detailed security review meeting at SKICC, Shah was told that in the past three years, 722 militants, were killed including almost all the top commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Toib and Ansaar Gazwatul Hind,” a senior security official, who was present in the meeting told KNO. He said the Union Home Minister lauded the role of J&K Police and other security agencies in countering the militancy and dealing with it effectively, but “he stressed that it was time to ensure militancy is wiped-out from Kashmir soil forever so that development takes place in its true sense and youth are involved in various developmental schemes.”
The official said that he directed the army to ensure that whenever militants try to cross over from the other side, they are killed well within the zero line and aren’t allowed to reach hinterland and spread their network in north Kashmir or any part of South Kashmir. “Shah was briefed about the successful anti-militancy operations started in the past three years and successes achieved in the past one year especially in the South Kashmir areas of Kashmir,” the official said.
Another official, present in the meeting, told KNO that special emphasis was laid on how to clean the “Kashmir soil from militancy and the heads of security agencies were asked to fix a deadline for its mission clean.” “He asked the forces to prepare a list of remaining big fish in militancy and catch them at the earliest. He also stressed on curbing the local militant recruitment fully and involving youth in various sports and developmental activities,” the official revealed to KNO.
The Union Home Minister, accordingly to officials, told the meeting that “go to the roots of terror funding and find the missing links so that money used to foment trouble is plugged fully.”
Interestingly, in its official hand-out, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that Union Home Minister was for zero tolerance for militants and militancy and that he was for continued crackdown on the terror funding in the State.”