‘PAK CONTINUING WITH ANTICS, BUT J&K SITUATION HAS IMPROVED’

LUCKNOW: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said Pakistan was continuing with its antics and making efforts to break India, but in spite of that, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had improved significantly.

He also said there was a decline in the incidents of extremism and that the credit for this should go to the followers of Islam in the country.

Speaking at an event organised by a newspaper here today, Singh said, "Pakistan is continuing with its antics and making efforts to break us, but the co-ordination among our Army, paramilitary forces, the Jammu and Kashmir Police and intelligence agencies has been excellent." He said there were 86,000 terror-related incidents in Jammu and Kashmir in 1995, adding that over the last one year, the number of such incidents had come down to 300 in that state.

Stating that there had been a significant improvement in the situation in the restive region, Singh pointed out that the Centre had already appointed a special representative (for- mer Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma) for a dialogue with all the stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Hurriyat leaders.

"The special representative will talk to all the stakeholders and recommend to the Government of India as to what should be done to resolve the problems," he added.

Replying to a question pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir, the home minister said, "When we are in the government, there is a direct conversation with the public. We are working in the direction of resolving problems." On the issue of rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, he said, "Everyone wants them to be rehabilitated.

There were talks with for- mer (Jammu and Kashmir) chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and he had given his consent (to it). Later, the matter got stalled owing to disturbances there."

Singh added that the issue of rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits was discussed with current Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti as well and that the latter had promised effective steps in this regard. "We want to resolve the Kashmir issue by taking the people of Kashmir into confidence," he said.

On a question on the Rohingya Muslims issue, the BJP leader blamed the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government for the current situation involving the refugees.