Congress key panel led by Manmohan Singh meets today on Kashmir

Amid reports of troops buildup in the Kashmir valley ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, the Congress has called an emergency meeting of its policy planning group on Friday in Delhi.

The Kashmir policy planning group will discuss the current political and security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, a Congress leader said.

The group was formed in September 2017 and is headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It also has senior leaders Karan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Tariq Hamid Karra and Ghulam Ahmed Mir as its members.

“The group will also deliberate socio-political scenario emerging in all the three regions of the state,” added the leader.

The meeting comes against



the backdrop of movement of additional security personnel to Jammu and Kashmir.

The home ministry has denied a news agency Press Trust of India report that 28,000 security personnel, mostly CRPF personnel, are being sent to the Kashmir Valley.

The home ministry has said it did order deployment of about 10,000 central forces personnel to strengthen the counter-insurgency operations and law and order duties.

“This has apparently led to speculations of induction of additional forces,” an official in the home ministry, who did not want to be named, said.

The official also said “troops are rotated” according to “assessment of internal security situation and training requirements” for paramilitary forces.