Chidambaram to visit Kashmir, interact with public

SRINAGAR - Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram is visiting the Kashmir Valley Sunday to review the latest security situation in the violence-hit state where around 110 people have died, mostly in firing by security forces on street protesters, in the last over four months.

Chidambaram, on the second day of his Kashmir trip, will fly to north Kashmir town of Baramulla. On Saturday he visited Ladakh where he reviewed the progress of rehabilitation work in the aftermath of the August cloudburst tragedy in which over 200 people were killed.

In Baramulla, the home minister will address a high level meeting of police, paramilitary and district administration. He is likely to interact with the public at an official guest house in the north Kashmir town that also saw the worst violence in the last four months of unrest.

Thirty-nine people were killed in Baramulla district.

Chidambaram would later fly to Srinagar to attend a meeting of the top security grid — the unified command headquarters — to review the security situation in the state.

The home minister’s visit comes days after three Kashmir interlocutors concluded their first visit to the state.

This would be the home minister’s second visit to Kashmir in the past three months. As part of an All Party Delegation in August he along with some parliamentarians were in the valley.

Chidambaram will fly to winter capital Jammu in the afternoon to conclude his visit to the state.