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Major offensive against terrorists on the anvil in Jammu and Kashmir

Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi was in Srinagar on Tuesday to hold parleys with governor N N Vohra and chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to bring both the state government and Centre on the same page on the twin issues, sources said.

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Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti with Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi at a meeting to discuss the prevailing situation in the Valley in Srinagar on Tuesday
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A major offensive by security forces to flush out terrorists from Jammu and Kashmir looks all set to begin very soon along with efforts to bring stakeholders on the table for talks to start the process of finding a lasting solution to Kashmir imbroglio.

Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi was in Srinagar on Tuesday to hold parleys with governor N N Vohra and chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to bring both the state government and Centre on the same page on the twin issues, sources said.

Mehbooba being the chief minister heads the unified command in J&K and has to be taken onboard before starting an offensive of high magnitude as it could fuel public sentiments further like what happened after Hizbul commander Burhan Wani's encounter death.

Mehrishi also held a security review meeting which was attended by top officials from security forces, police and intelligence agencies. Mehrishi understood to have discussed preparedness of security forces in the valley in case of escalation with Pakistan that is very much on the cards after terror attack on Uri Army base camp by Pak trained Jaish fidayeens.

Intelligence agencies suspect that during more than two months of unrest when counter insurgency operations almost came to a halt Pakistan succeeded in infiltrating a large number of terrorists into India.

According to analysis of collated intelligence, as much as 200-220 terrorists may have managed to infiltrate J&K since January this year. The massive unrest that triggered after Wani's encounter death provided them ample opportunity to travel to various towns and mingle with crowds.

During the time of unrest, intelligence agencies painstakingly worked on the movement of terrorists with the help of intercepts and human intelligence and mapped and jotted down their area of operations which will come handy in launching operations against them, said highly placed sources.

Officials believe that once the security agencies are able to flush out or neutralise a sizeable number of terrorists and militants, it will not only reduce the intensity of violent protests but will also impact the morale of the resistance group and separatist leaders thus making it possible to bring them on the table for talks.

The government will discuss and fine-tune the diplomatic offensive in the meeting of cabinet committee on security on Wednesday. In an unscheduled meeting at the house of minister of parliamentary affairs, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Manohar Parrikar discussed the strategy with other cabinet colleagues - home minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Arun Jaitley. The meeting also discussed pre- poning the winter session parliament to bring the GST bill for passage.

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