Srinagar: Director General National Investigation Agency (NIA) Kuldeep Singh, who is also the Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), has asked security forces to go tough against militants and those supporting them.
DG NIA arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday morning. After a day-long visit to Kashmir, he returned to Delhi in the evening.
Singh’s visit to Kashmir comes at a time when militants have carried out targetted civilian killings in Srinagar and Bandipora districts. Those killed included a prominent Kashmiri Pandit chemist, two school teachers belonging to minority communities and a non-local street vendor from Bihar.
The attacks occurred at a time when the tourists from Indian hinterland were thronging Kashmir with all the hotels showing 100 percent occupancy and Kashmir humming with economic activity.
Singh, soon after arriving in Kashmir, held deliberations with the senior officers of various security agencies besides taking the stock of anti-militancy operations being carried out by NIA in Kashmir. “He met senior CRPF and NIA officers here and asked them to go very tough against people associated with terrorism,” a senior CRPF official told Greater Kashmir.
The official said DG NIA/CRPF met two IGs of CRPF and NIA officials here. “DG sahib was briefed about the overall security scenario prevailing in the valley after the target killings by terrorists,” he said, adding, “He was also briefed about the operations being carried out against terrorism.”
The NIA Director General also interacted with J&K DGP Dilbag Singh, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar and senior officials of other agencies including intelligence agencies.
The probe agency carried out several raids in Kashmir during the last few days and arrested some people accused of having militancy links.
It needs to be mentioned here that earlier the Centre had sent its top counter-terror experts to Kashmir to aid police and security to carry out anti-militant operations in Kashmir.
In the last two days, eight militants, mostly of LeT, were killed in five encounters in different parts of Kashmir.