No decision on ceasefire, but new schemes for J&K
BORDER FOCUS 60% posts in 7 new battalions to be kept for border residents SRINAGAR:
Union home minister Rajnath Singh did not say whether the government would continue its suspension of security operations in Kashmir beyond Ramzan, but announced several efforts to reach out to the people of the region as he wound up his two-day tour on Friday.
The suspension, or the unilateral cessation of operations, was put in place last month for the month of Ramzan that ends next week. The state’s top officials, including chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, have told Singh that the move had succeeded in bringing down violence within civilian areas, according to a functionary in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party who was aware of the deliberations between the home minister and state officials. The source asked not to be named as the discussions were classified.
“We will sit and after reviewing the situation, a decision about the ceasefire will be taken,” Singh said while visiting frontier villages in Kupwara.
The minister announced new plans to set up two border battalions and five battalions of the Indian Reserve Police, with 60% of the posts reserved for people who live in border areas.
Such regions will also be given several bulletproof ambulances and the government will build more than 14,000 bunkers for people to take shelter in during episodes of violence between India and Pakistan.
Thousands of people live in villages close to the de facto border — the Line of Control — between India and Pakistan and are rou- tinely caught in crossfire. Sniper and mortar fires have killed several people this year and damaged dozens of houses.
“Around 5,000 people will be selected in these battalions and 60% reservation will be given to people who live within 10 kilometres of the border,” Singh told a delegation of reporters.
The government’s efforts to strike a dialogue appeared to have drawn a positive reaction from the state’s separatists. The chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said on Friday that they would welcome a change in India’s policy regarding Kashmir and Pakistan, without going into details of what this change could be.
“Time will tell us. If it is a change in their policy, we have welcomed it in the past and will do the same in future,” he said, purportedly in reference to reports that the government could open a channel of communications through its interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma.