Apart from ensuring the safety of the Pandits of the valley, top home officials including Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla sat in a meeting yesterday to review the polling situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Officials of the Jammu and Kashmir administrations were also present in the meeting.
Although it has been stopped for some time, the incident of terrorist attacks on Pandits has raised its head again. Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Indian branch organization The Resistance Front (TRF) has published the list of 56 Pandits who are working under the Prime Minister’s package in the valley and where they are working. Which is practically a threat to kill them, the pundits of the valley have said. Several scholarly organizations have raised questions about how the list of names and where they are working came to light.
They also demanded a high-level investigation into how the secret list was leaked. After the publication of the list, the demand to shift the scholars working in the Valley to Jammu intensified.
The overall picture of the security system in Jammu and Kashmir was presented at the meeting of Home Ministers in Delhi yesterday. The biggest worry for the security forces at the moment is the lack of a clear direction on how to respond to attacks such as the tactics adopted by militants to selectively kill Pandits. In this case, the emphasis is more on a local level, intelligence gathering. According to sources, the meeting said that around fifty militants are still active in South Kashmir.
Different militant activities
Militant activity continues at launch pads along the Line of Control despite the onset of winter. Although less in number than before, a section of Kashmir’s youth is still coming forward to join militancy.
According to the source, apart from the security of the Pandits, the meeting also discussed the conditions for conducting elections in the Valley. Jammu and Kashmir seat re-arrangement has been completed. The work of preparing the new voter list is also at the final stage. According to a source in the government, the Narendra Modi government wants to restore the status quo by voting in the valley after winter. According to sources, the centre has advised the administration to make necessary preparations keeping in mind the month of February and March.
Commenting on the judge, Agnihotri apologized
Film director Vivek Agnihotri apologized before the Delhi High Court yesterday for his controversial comments on granting bail to accused social activist Gautam Nowlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case. He criticized the judge himself for giving that verdict.
Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court decided to grant bail to Nowlakha. Agnihotri claimed that the judge had given a biased verdict. From 2006 to 2020, S Muralidhar was a judge of the Delhi High Court. He was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court last year. He is currently serving as the Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court. After Justice Muralidhar’s verdict, the Delhi High Court decided to proceed with the case unilaterally against Agnihotri for alleging bias.