Core Group Review Ensuing Panchayat Poll Security

Srinagar, Oct 27: The General Officer Commanding (GOC), Chinar Corps, Lt Gen B.S. Raju, and Director General Police Dilbag Singh, co-chaired a meeting of the Core Group consisting of top officials of the civil administration and intelligence agencies here on Tuesday to review security for upcoming Panchayat Elections and put in place “winter security strategy”.
“The Core Group reviewed the security situation in Kashmir. The meeting also reviewed the security requirements during the upcoming Panchayat Elections and to discuss the winter security strategy,” a defence ministry spokesman here said in a statement.
“Officials shared that reports indicate that the launch pads in (Pak) continue to be full and Pakistan establishment is keen to push in infiltrators before the onset of winters and closing of the passes due to snow.”
The officials, the statement said, expressed satisfaction at the efforts so far along the line of control to prevent infiltration.
“The robust security grid along with technical surveillance has considerably lowered infiltration in current year.”
The officials discussed modalities of continued conduct of operations to prevent infiltration of weapons, narcotics and money in the region, the statement said. “The forces are gearing up to meet the challenges during the change into winter posture.”
Review of security indicators, the army statement said shows that violence level has dropped in last few months.
“Intelligence inputs indicate desperation in Pakistani establishment and separatists to generate violence and civil casualties in the valley. The core group discussed the need for continued intelligence based anti-(militancy) operations with a humane touch,” it said, adding, “To address the complete eco-system of (militant) organisations, the efforts to identify and arrest over ground workers who sustain the (militant) organisations will continue with vigour.”
The statement further said that the “Pakistan supported anti-national element is keen to disrupt normal life of the people and interfere with restart of political activities.”
“It was decided to carryout extensive area domination and counter (militant) operations to deny any opportunity to the (militants) for creating violence, till onset of winters and the conduct of local body polls.”
The core also decided to enhance steps to prevent local youth from joining militant ranks including proactive steps in consultation with families of vulnerable youth, and identification and arrest of “instigators”.
“Special emphasis was laid down to continue the operations in a manner to give options of surrender to the local youth. Officials opined that the role of civil society was considered important for this effort to succeed.”