Srinagar, May 07 (KNO): Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Wednesday chaired back-to-back meetings to assess the situation and directed for immediate measures to ensure the safety of citizens.
As soon as the dawn broke, the Chief Minister, as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), chaired an emergency meeting with Deputy Commissioners of all border districts to assess the situation.
The Deputy Commissioners were directed to take immediate measures to ensure the safety of citizens. The directions were passed to strengthen infrastructure with regard to providing shelters and bunkers for the public in border areas.
While the cross border shelling along the Line of Control resulted in the loss of lives, the Chief Minister, as per KNO, said that nobody is in favour of war. He added that Pakistan needs to lower guns as the prevailing situation was triggered by it.
The Chief Minister said that the present situation is an outcome of the Pahalgam attack on April 22. “We had to give a befitting reply. The Central Government had decided to attack the camps of those who devastated J&K for many years. It was decided to target the terror areas not military and civilian installations,” he said.
He added that Pakistan has now targeted the civilian areas. “We don’t want a war. We were living peacefully. It was started by them. We want to improve again, but Pakistan needs to silence its guns first,” he said.
Pertinently, Indian forces targeted the headquarters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba in the missile attacks in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday, officials said.
Moreover, the Chief Minister also chaired the cabinet meeting in which several key issues were discussed.
Later this afternoon, the Chief Minister also attended the meeting chaired by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah via video conferencing with the border states—(KNO)