Doval, RAW chief meet Shah after terrorists kill Hindu bank employee in JK

Ahead of a crucial meeting on Jammu & Kashmir, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is believed to have discussed the security situation in the Union Territory, which has witnessed a spate of targeted killings since May 12.

Doval, along with RAW chief Samant Goel, closeted with Shah for over an hour at the home minister's office at North Block this afternoon, official sources said. Details of their meeting were not known immediately but they were believed to have discussed the situation in restive Kashmir where a bank emp­loyee hailing from Rajasthan was killed this morning — the third non-Muslim government employee.

Vijay Kumar, a resident of Bhagwan village in Rajasthan , worked as a manger with Ellaqui Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora branch in the south Kashmir district. He was posted there recently.

Shah will chair the high-level meeting on Friday to discuss the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the second such exercise in less than a fortnight which comes at a time when terrorists have been carrying out targeted killings in the Valley. 

Doval is also expected to attend Friday's meeting.

Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and senior functionaries of the central government and Union Territory would participate in the meeting which is also expected to take stock of the arrangements for the annual Amarnath yatra, being held after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The meeting will be held amid protests by Kashmiri Pandit community seeking protection and some of them leaving the Valley following the targeted killings.

In the last meeting on June 17, Shah had advocated pro-active and coordinated counter-terror operations and had asked security forces to ensure zero cross-border infiltration and wipe out terrorism from the Union Territory.

The meeting comes in the wake of terrorists carrying out targeted killings, including of a woman teacher hailing from Samba district of Jammu region at Kulgam on Tuesday.

On May 18, terrorists had entered into a wine shop at Baramulla in North Kashmir and threw a grenade, killing one person hailing from Jammu region and injuring three others.

On May 24, policeman Saifullah Qadri was shot dead outside his residence in Srinagar while a television artiste Amreen Bhat was gunned down in Budgam two days later.

Scores of Kashmiri Pandits, who were employed under a prime minister's package in 2012, have been staging continuous protests threatening mass exodus since the killing of Rahul Bhat, who was shot dead by terrorists on May 12 in Chadoora area of Budgam district in central Kashmir.

After the previous meeting, an official statement had said that the home minister directed security forces and the police to conduct coordinated counter-terrorism operations pro-actively.

The home minister had said that in order to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a prosperous and peaceful Jammu and Kashmir, security forces should ensure zero cross-border infiltration.