By IANS,
Srinagar : Jammu and Kashmir will soon step up security for panches and sarpanches, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said here Wednesday and blamed Pakistan-based militant outfits Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for their killings.
Security would be provided to the panches (elected village representatives) and sarpanches (elected village heads) after evaluating their individual threat perceptions. He said a high level meeting would be held Oct 1 to review their security.
“If we cannot provide security to each one of them individually, we will take measures to secure the areas,” Abdullah said, assuring increase in deployment of security forces in such regions. According to reports, at least 10 such village representatives have been killed.
Asked whether or not the need for the increase in deployment of the security forces was in contradiction to his repeated demand for the revocation of the armed forces special powers act (AFSPA), Abdullah said: “There is no contradiction.”
“We are not demanding revocation of AFSPA from Sopore and Baramulla (areas where the militants are still believed to be active). We are asking for revocation of the act from Srinagar and its adjoining areas,” Abdullah said.
He said only 50 panches and sarpanches had submitted their resignations in the wake of the guerrilla attacks on them.
Omar Abdullah also took a dig at his ally, the Congress for hyping the non-devolution of powers to the village representatives.
Abdullah said that two of his Congress ministers had called on him saying that the devolution of powers to panches and sarpanches would undermine the authority of the MLAs in the state.
The chief minister also expressed surprise over the public disclosure of the correspondence between him and the head of the coalition coordination committee which is headed by state Congress chief Saif-ud-Din Soz.
He, however, accepted that the killings were militant acts and blamed the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfits for the same.
“These killings are militancy-related and there is no evidence that these were because of political or business rivalry,” he conceded.