Srinagar, May 16: The issue of revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from some parts of Jammu and Kashmir remained the focus of meetings between visiting Union Home Secretary and State Government on Wednesday.
Singh arrived here today on a two day visit to assess the ground situation in the state and to take a review of the hiccups in cross-LoC trade.
Sources told Greater Kashmir that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during his meeting with the Union Home Secretary reiterated his demand for revocation of AFSPA from some parts of JK.
According to them, CM, during the meeting, justified his demand by saying that there was sharp decline in violence and it was imperative to repeal AFSPA from peaceful districts of the state to provide relief to the masses.
The Chief Minister also briefed Home Secretary about the considerable improvement in law and order situation of the state particularly in the Valley for last more than one and a half year.
Sources added that state government also briefed the Home Secretary about its move to evict forces from industrial estates and government buildings in the Valley.
The detailed report about eviction of forces from industrial estates and other buildings was submitted to Home Secretary by the state government.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary also discussed the issue of AFSPA with Governor N N Vohra this evening along with other law and order and security issues.
An official spokesman said the issues discussed, in their over hour long meeting, included matters relating to internal security and border management; AFSPA; issues relating to the youth who had exfiltrated to PaK for arms training and are now returning via the Nepal route; lands and buildings occupied by the Army and Security Forces; trans-LoC trade and training programmes for the Police personnel.
According to the official sources, Singh will be travelling to Kaman Post, Salamabad, Uri tomorrow to assess the difficulties of traders besides working-out the modalities for establishing banking relations for the businessmen.
He will also hold talks with the state authorities for having a telephone link between the two parts of Kashmir purely for encouraging the trading relations, which started in 2008, they said. Later, he is likely to visit Jammu where he will have first-hand account about the trading in Chakan-da-Bagh at Poonch.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had recently raised the issue of impediments in the cross-LoC trade at the internal security conference chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Omar had requested the Home Ministry to take up the matter with the ministries concerned so that the trade can flourish in real terms.
The matter was likely to be raised at the proposed meeting of the Home Secretaries of India and Pakistan scheduled to be held in Islamabad next month.
Meanwhile, a high level security meeting was held here in which Home Secretary was briefed about the current situation of the valley and security arrangements being done for Amarnath Yatra. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda, Chief Secretary Madhav Lal , Inspector General of Police SM Sahai and other top brass  from civil administration, police and intelligence agencies participated in the meet.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 IST