In a significant development, the Army has stepped in to help the police and paramilitary forces in restoring peace in Kashmir Valley and particularly frustrate Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference’s fresh calendar of protests and strikes announced here on Tuesday.
A statement issued by the Srinagar-based 15 Army Corps said that a special Core Group meeting was held at its headquarters to discuss the measures “to effectively counter the protest calendar issued by the Hurriyat Conference.” A defence spokesperson Lt. Col. J S Brar said that the meeting chaired by Lt. Gen. N.C. Marwah, the security adviser to chief minister Omar Abdullah and attended besides high ranking civil and military officials by the director general of police Mr Kuldeep Khoda, formulated a detailed joint strategy to restore normalcy in Kashmir. “The strategy will be implemented with immediate effect,” he said.
In July, when the state government had sought Army’s help in maintaining law and order, the latter had refused to be involved in crowd control management.
***
Air services to resume tomorrow
Age CORRESPONDENT
Srinagar
Sept. 15: The air services to and from Srinagar suspended earlier this week in view of the security scenario in the Valley will be resumed on Friday when upgrading work at the Srinagar airport will be complete.
The airport was closed to flights on September 3 to enable the re-carpeting of the runway and the flight operations were diverted to the Awantipora Air Force Base, 32-km south of Srinagar. But on Monday evening, the Air Force officials manning the Awantipora Air Base refused permission to a SpiceJet flight to land forcing it to return to Delhi. Later, the concerned authorities announced suspension of flight operations.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said, “The maintenance work at Srinagar airport is complete and commercial air traffic will resume from Friday.”