New Delhi, July 10: The Union minister for new and renewable energy, Mr Farooq Abdullah, met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, here Saturday to seek assistance for the Jammu and Kashmir government headed by his son Omar. He later left for Srinagar.
Mr Abdullah who retu-rned from abroad on Friday is expected to attend the all-party meeting convened by his Mr Omar Abdullah.
Mr Omar Abdullah, meanwhile, appealed to the PDP chief, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, to reconsider her party’s decision to stay away from an all-party meeting convened by him in Srinagar on Monday to discuss the present situation.
The Army, which was deployed in certain parts of Srinagar four days ago to assist the civil administration, may be withdrawn from the streets early next week, Mr Omar Abdullah said. He said the state government was using the Army in the “extreme periphery”.
The four-day-old curfew was relaxed in the entire valley last night following a high-level meeting presided by Mr Omar Abdullah to enable people offer special prayers overnight at the Hazratbal shrine for Shab-e-Mehraj. People continued to throng the shrine on Saturday to have a glimpse of a holy relic of Prophet Mohammed which is shown to people after every prayer on Shab-e-Mehraj (night of ascent). Nearly 10,000 people had taken part in three special prayers till evening.
Meanwhile, following intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based militant outfits may try to disturb the Amarnath yatra in J&K, the Centre has now sounded a high alert on Saturday for security agencies asking them to remain vigilant during the two-month-long period that it is on.
Regarding the alert, government sources said intelligence agencies have intercepted several conversations between militants in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and those operating in the Kashmir valley which suggested that they may be planning attacks on the Amarnath pilgrims taking part in the yatra which ends on August 25.