Centre allows EU MPs to visit J&K

Modi seeks EU’s help in fighting terrorism

In a development signalling an international outreach by the Narendra Modi government, 27 European Union MPs plan to visit Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday after they met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Monday.

Sources said the MPs’ visit to J&K was being organised by an “NGO” and the EU MPs were in India on a private visit.

Nevertheless, it seems obvious that the government has given its approval to the visit. During his meeting the EU MPs, Mr Modi “highlighted the importance of international cooperation to fight terrorism”.

“Urgent action must be taken against all those who support or sponsor terrorism or support such activities and organisations or use terrorism as a state policy. There should be zero tolerance for terrorism,” Mr Modi told the European MPs, who called on him on Monday.

Srinagar, Oct. 28: A truck driver was killed by suspected militants on Monday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district, police said, a day before a delegation of European Union MPs visits the Valley.

Narayan Dutt, a resident of Katra in Udhampur district, is the fourth truck driver to be killed by militants since August 5 when the Centre abrogated J&K’s special status under Article 370 and split the state into two Union Territories.

Dutt was fired upon by the militants in the evening in the Kanilwan area of Bijbehara in the south Kashmir district, a police official said.

He died on the spot, he added.

A senior police official, who was nearby, rushed to the spot and managed to save two other truck drivers who were in the vicinity, police said.

The area has been cordoned off and a hunt launched to nab the attackers, they said.

Dutt’s killing follows a series of attacks by militants on truck drivers and non-locals.