New Delhi, Aug 25: Reiterating the Centre’s willingness to hold dialogue with all sections to end what he termed the ‘vicious cycle’ of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the government was looking for the ‘elusive starting point’ to reach out to the protestors.
Speaking at the inauguration of 45th conference of the chiefs of state police and central paramilitary forces here, Chidambaram conceded that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has not returned to normal yet and the security forces have been instructed to act with great restraint. “Unfortunately, since June this year, there has been an unexpected turn of events in Kashmir,” he said.
Stressing that a political solution must be found to the problems of J&K, he said, “The Central Government has offered a dialogue with all sections of the people of J&K and all political parties and groups. We are concerned that we have not been able to stop the vicious cycle in which that State is caught.”
Expressing optimism at an early solution, the Union minister said. “It is my hope that, in the next few days, we would be able to find that elusive ‘starting point’ from where we could reach out to the protestors, reassure them of their rights and dignity, restore peace and order, redeem the promises made, and re-start the process of dialogue that will lead to a solution.”
Noting that the security situation in the state had shown marked improvement, the minister said, “As you are aware, beginning 2005, and with the exception of 2008, the law and order situation in J&K has been extremely benign, with few incidents and fewer casualties.”
 “The state is now caught in a vicious cycle of stone-pelting, lathicharge, teargasing and firing, leading to casualties, and resulting in more stone-pelting,” Chidambaram said and added that the situation has not returned to normal yet and the security forces have been instructed to act with great restraint.
The minister, however, hastened to add that the number of Amarnath pilgrims and tourists in the state have increased since last year. “This year 516,970 tourists have visited the Valley and that number also exceeded the 355,960 tourists of last year,” he said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will tomorrow address the annual conference being organised by the Intelligence Bureau.

NUMBER OF MILITANTS ON DECLINE: MAKEN
The Centre today said the number of “local militants” in Jammu and Kashmir had come down in the last three years.
A total of 892 militants were also arrested during the same period, minister of state for home affairs Ajay Maken told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
“Yes sir,” Maken replied to a question on whether it was a fact that number of local militants have come down in Jammu and Kashmir.
“As per reports, the militant strength for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 was estimated to be around 1200, 900-1000 and 550-700 respectively,” he said. The number of militants arrested during the last three years are 400 (2007), 305 (2008) and 187 (2009), he said.

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