New Delhi, July 7: The Centre on Wednesday decided to deploy army in Kashmir for "deterrent effect" and it will be called in when necessary by the civil administration.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which met under under chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also decided that Army would be in the "periphery" and not be deployed in congested areas, informed sources said.
Meeting in the morning after its overnight decision to deploy army in the wake of deteriorating law and order situation, especially in Srinagar, the Security Cabinet decided that it would be the civil administration that would decide where to place the army units in restoring law and order.
Taking stock of the situation, especially in the light of three deaths due to firing in Srinagar yesterday, the Centre felt that curfew would be strictly enforced and “mischief mongers” will be put behind bars.
It took note of the fact that the local administration has arrested many mischief mongers.
The curfew, the sources said, would be enforced till normalcy restored.
The CCS also decided to send Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai to Srinagar to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation and report back to the Prime Minister tomorrow.
Last night, at the request of the state government, the Centre decided to deploy army to assist the civil authorities in restoring law and order in the wake of spiralling protests in Srinagar.
The security Cabinet also felt that "maximum crackdown" should be carried out against miscreants.
Home minister P Chidambaram, defence minister A K Antony, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekar, NSA Shiv Shankar Menon, Home Secretary Pillai, and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar attended the meeting.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 7 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 7 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 8 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST