Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the present law and order situation in Kashmir. However, no senior government representative or administrative officer from Jammu and Kashmir attended the meeting.
It was not known if chief minister Mehbooba Mufti or any other senior elected representative was invited for the meeting or not.
The prime minister held the emergency meeting this morning which was attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed concern over the fact that no authority from the state was present in the meeting that reviewed the situation in the state.
In a tweet, Omar asked why Mehbooba could not take part in the meeting through video conferencing if she could not attend it physically. “I understand if (Mehbooba Mufti) didn’t leave the state to attend but why not by video conference? State unrepresented,” he said.
“We set up video links for all sorts of meaningless things but here where it matters to have (Mehbooba Mufti) involved in the process – nothing,” he added in next tweet.
Kashmir valley is tense since July 8 after government forced killed top militant commander Burhan Wani. At least 30 civilians have died since then in violent protests and clashes with government forces – who continue to use assault rifles against protesting civilians who pelt stones on them.