Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday and take stock of the situation in the Valley, which is crippled by unrest for the past two weeks ago. Singh’s visit comes at a time when another youth lost his life in fresh clashes that broke out between protestors and security forces in the Valley, after the Friday prayers, taking the toll to 46.
Singh will be in Kashmir for two days to calm down the tension and reach out to people in the first high-level visit from the Centre, after the violence broke out on July 8. He will interact with people belonging to various sections of the society and chair meetings with senior police and administrative officials.
Singh, who will reach Srinagar around 11 am, will first interact with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and senior officials and review the law and order situation in the Valley. After that, he will meet representatives of political parties, social organisations and leading citizens to get their feedback about the Kashmir situation as well as future roadmap, official sources said in Delhi.
Singh will stay at Nehru guesthouse in Srinagar, where he will meet the public representatives.
Meanwhile, since the start of the Monsoon session, the Opposition parties have been taking on the government over the Kashmir unrest in Parliament, prompting the latter to respond. Singh had on Thursday said that the government had already directed security forces to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with protests in the Valley.