[Reader-list] Threat to Hindus in Valley: RAW

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

*Threat to Hindus in Valley: RAW*
 *Pranab Dhal Samanta, Indian Express*
*August 28, 2008*

*New Delhi, August 27 *The Centre is deeply worried about the security of
the Hindu community in the Valley after intelligence reports of militant
outfits planning to target them to create communal unrest.

Based on these reports, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan met members
of the Hindu Welfare Society during his recent visit to Srinagar and asked
the state to intensify security in areas inhabited by the Hindus. The matter
was also discussed in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, which
met on Wednesday to take stock of the situation in the state.

The concern grew after a detailed report from the Research and Analysis Wing
(RAW) was submitted to the PMO recently. The report, based largely on
communication intercepts, stated that Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, one of the
terrorists released after the IC-814 hijack and now heading an outfit called
Al Umar Mujahideen, has issued instructions to target Hindus in the Valley,
government buildings and public property.

Similarly, the agency has shared specific inputs about the Hizbul Mujahideen
leadership issuing instructions to target Hindus in Kishtwar. The RAW has
conveyed that the Sikh community too may be under threat from Hizbul cadres.
It has also received information that Lashkar-e-Toiba has strengthened its
presence outside the Valley in Rajouri and has apparently carried out
reconnaissance operations to attack local Hindu religious sites. While
law-enforcement authorities are corroborating this information on the
ground, the Centre has made it clear that there should be no let-up in
increasing security for minority groups.

While the Centre has decided to come down hard on extremist elements in the
Valley, there is also a view here that the government must act with equal
resolve when it comes to Hindu extremist elements in Jammu so that there is
little chance of a communal fallout in the state.

Link -
http://www.kashmirlive.com/story/Threat-to-Hindus-in-Valley--RAW/354210.html