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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, MARCH 23: A two-member ministerial team which visited Chaittarsinghpura village in south Kashmir where militants massacred 35 Sikhs, has favoured additional deployment of at least four battalions of security forces to provide security to minority communities living in the Valley.
The team comprising Union Ministers Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Chaman Lal Gupta called for effective steps to check migration of minorities from the Valley in the wake of the killings.
Gupta told newsmen that there were 115 villages largely inhabited by minorities and each village would need at least one section of security forces to insulate them from terrorist attacks.
He said that the team members conveyed their assessment of the situation to Home Minister L K Advani over telephone and would submit a formal report in a day or two.
Gupta said Village Defence Committees equipped with modern equipments and weapons should be set up in all the villages inhabited by minorities.
Gupta said efforts should also be made to launch a special drive to recruit youth from minorities in government jobs and police as there was no economic activity in the Valley for over a decade leading to large scale unemployment among the youth of the minority communities.
He said political leadership in the state should reach out to people to restore confidence in the administration and strengthen communal harmony.
At the same, he said, all the communities in the state should ensure communal peace and harmony and fight the Pakistani sponsored proxy war with grit and determination.
