Kashmir wary of Chittisinghpora repeat during Obama visit

JAMMU - Jammu and Kashmir has asked security agencies to watch out against a Chittisinghpora type massacre during US President Barack Obama’s visit next month, worried that terrorists may go in for dramatic action to grab attention.

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had killed 35 Sikhs in the village of Chittisinghpora in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on the intervening night of March 19 and 20, 2000, coinciding with the arrival of then US president Bill Clinton in India and casting a shadow over the trip.

According to highly placed sources, the situation across the state was reviewed and it was felt that extra vigil was required as the terrorists might go in for some kind of spectacular action to draw global attention towards Kashmir.

This assessment was also based on the fresh intelligence inputs that Pakistan had intensified efforts to push in terrorists from across the Line of Control to cause trouble in the state, an state government official said.

“We have told the security forces to maintain highest degree of vigil and frustrate any plans of terrorists to cause bloodshed,” the top official told IANS.

Obama is scheduled to visit India from Nov 6-9 in what will be his longest official visit to any country since he took over in January last year.