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Such regions will also be given several bullet-proof 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.

A nine-day long intense bout of shelling by Pakistan from May 15 to May 23 left 12 people dead and 56 others injured besides displacing over one lakh people from Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. The two countries held DGMO (director general of military operations)- level talks on May 29 to restore the November 2003 ceasefire and bring calm to the borders.

Pakistan violated the ceasefire again on June 3 killing two BSF men and injuring 14 civilians in the Pargwal sector of Jammu district. Following this, BSF and Pakistan Rangers held a sectorcommander level flag meeting at the Octroi post in Suchetgarh area of RS Pura sector Monday evening to restore sanity on the border.

Pakistan has violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LOC) and the international border close to 1,100 times this year, resulting in the death of over 35 people.

The minister also announced an increase in the financial compensation to ₹5 lakh from ₹1 lakh for persons killed during crossborder firing on the International Border and the Line of Control. The amount will be directly credited to the account of next of kin instead of being given in a fixed deposit account.

Thousands of people live in villages close to the de-facto border — the Line of Control — between India and Pakistan and are routinely caught in crossfire.

Singh said the plan is to draw some of these people to the new battalions.

“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 while detailing the police recruitment plan.

The government’s efforts to engage in 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 the group would welcome a change in India’s policy of engaging with the separatist leadership and Pakistan.

“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. However, the Mirwaiz and other leaders of the Hurriyat have said they would prefer to talk at the political level.

HT had reported on June 6 that the ground was being laid for an ‘open’ meeting between Sharma and the separatist leadership, possibly after Eid.

The Mirwaiz was, however, expressed caution and said the Indian government “spoke in different voices in Delhi and in Kashmir”.

“We are not in a hurry and people should show unity. It’s our unity which has forced India to think that force can’t weaken the resolve the people,” he said. ambit of humanity. Let (home minister) Rajnath Singh tell us whether his government has had a change of heart or is it just a change of strategy. If we are the kingpins of the demonstrations and the protests, who is now paying the youth to go to encounter sites?”

Key aides and relatives of the separatists have been in jail for over a year due to the NIA probe. Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh, son-in-law of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shahid-ul-islam, spokesperson of the Mirwaiz, are still in prison.

The Mirwaiz also indicated that the JRL would prefer a dialogue at the ‘political level’ and not at the level of the interlocutor, Dineshwar Sharma, who retired as the chief of the Intelligence Bureau.

Rajnath reiterated the need for a dialogue while on a two-day visit to the state. “You don’t have to be like-minded, but rightminded,” he said in Srinagar on Thursday.

The Mirwaiz held out hope of a dialogue, saying, “We will respond soon to the home minister’s request.”

A second official, familiar with the backchannel efforts also held out hope, hinting that it’s possible to simply keep the NIA case going without doing anything about it. “The case against Yasin Malik, accused of killing air force officers, is still dragging on for more than 25 years,” this person added on condition of anonymity.

“We are hopeful of talks.” seven times closer to its host star than Earth is to the sun, and its surface temperature is estimated to be 600 degrees Celsius.

As of June 2, there are 3,786 confirmed exoplanets in 2,834 systems. Only 22 other systems have been measured with as precise measurement of mass and radii as this one.