ELECTION IN KASHMIR
Government is aware of the intention of various
terrorist outfits and their mentors across the border to disrupt
the election to Jammu & Kashmir Assembly through violence
and intimidation of masses and political leaders. However, the
Government is determined to conduct free, fair and credible elections
to the State Assembly at any cost. The State Government has already
been advised to provide security cover to leaders of various political
parties commensurate with the threat perception in each case.
Furtherj, the State Government has been asked to address the security
concerns of the common people as well as leaders of political
parties to encourage them to interact freely and at the same time
to undertake sustained and focused demonstrative anti-terrorists
strikes against the terrorists and other hardcore pro-Pak fundamentalists
to blunt their capabilities to disrupt the election process. The
Central Government would make every effort to provide additional
Central para Military Forces despite constraints and demands from
elsewhere for the smooth and peaceful conduct of the elections.
This was stated by the Minister of State
for Home, Shri Ch. Vidyasagar Rao in a written reply in the Lok
Sabha today.
The Minister said that the Government have
been receiving reports indicating that following the defeat of
Taliban and other foreign terrorists who were in Afghanistan prior
to November 2001, a substantial number of erstwhile Taliban and
allied fundamentalist groups have crossed over to Pakistan and
POK. These terrorists are likely to join terrorists outfits like
Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Al-Badr, Hizbul Mujahideen
etc. for their eventual infiltration into Jammu & Kashmir
and to escalate terrorist violence in the State of J&K and
elsewhere. The possibility of Al-Qaida terrorist having infiltrated
into J&K and Assam cannot be ruled out. In addition to continued
diplomatic initiatives at various levels and redeployment of troops
at borders/LoC and intensive pressure on terrorists in the hinterland
the Government, conjointly with the State Government, has adopted
a multi-pronged approach, to contain cross border terrorism perpetrated
by the pro-Pak terrorist outfits/Pak ISI in Jammu & Kashmir,
which includes, inter-alia, strengthening border management to
check infiltration; pro-active action against terrorists within
J&K; gearing up intelligence machinery; greater functional
integration through an institutional frame-work of Operation Groups
and Intelligence Groups of the UHQ at all levels; improved technology,
weapons and equipments for security forces and action as per law
against over ground supporters of the terrorists.
The strategies tactics and dynamic deployment
to counter the terrorists are constantly reviewed, refined and
monitored in the Unified Headquarters in the State and in Operation
Group at various levels.
