Indian Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high level security meeting in Jammu and Kashmir and said his government will work on strengthening the security grid in the region.
The high level, which took place in the winter capital of Jammu city, comes two weeks after the deadly militant strike in Rajouri district of J&K that claimed lives of seven including two children.
The Home Minister had planned to visit the families of the deceased, however, bad weather in the Kashmir region, which has been witnessing heavy snowfall for several days now, didn't allow Shah to meet the victims of the militant strike. Instead, Shah spoke to the seven families over the phone.
Shah held a press briefing in Jammu, where he said the authorities had "agreed to cast a 360 degree net to wipe out militancy from the region".
The Home Minister said that another decision taken in the security review meeting was that the “security grid of Jammu” will be strengthened on all fronts in a time-bound manner. “In three-months from now, the security grid will be further strengthened across Jammu,” he said.
Terrorism Remains Major Concern in Jammu & Kashmir
Barring some major suicide attacks on army bases, Jammu region had been relatively calmer than Kashmir, where a three decade long insurgency continues to rage.
However Jammu, where more than 60% of the population is non-Muslim, has witnessed increased amounts of violence, infiltration bids, civilian killings and militant attempts to airdrop weapons using drones over the past year.
On January 1, two armed men appeared from a forest near the Dangri village in Jammu's Rajouri district and killed five civilians. An improvised explosive device went off the next day at one of the victims' homes killing two children and taking the number of dead to seven.
The Home Minister in Jammu said that the central government had handed over the Rajouri killing case to National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“Jammu police will work jointly with the NIA and bring the culprits of Rajouri killings to justice. The NIA will also probe all the militancy related incidents that took place in the region in the past one and-a-half years,” he said.