NEW DELHI (TIP): Barely two days before he is scheduled to take up the counter-terrorism issues with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik, the Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on December 12 informed a Parliamentary panel that the terror outfits Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) continued to be the “dominant” militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir. He said these outfits were mostly operating from Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipore, Anantnag and Pulwama districts in Kashmir and Poonch, Ramban and Rajouri in Jammu region.

“This issue is being addressed from the security point of view and also taken up diplomatically with Pakistan”, Shinde said during the Consultative Committee meeting of his ministry on “security situation in J&K” on Wednesday. Malik will arrive here on three-day official visit on Friday. Besides launching the revised visa agreementsigned in Islamabad in September – between the two countries, both Malik and Shinde will also discuss issues concerning counter-terrorism measures, border management, fake Indian currency notes and cooperation among security and investigation agencies during a meeting.

Malik will call on PM Manmohan Singh, national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Saturday. Maintaining that the terror-related violence in J&K was at its “lowest”, Shinde told the Consultative Committee members that this has been made possible because of the yearning among the people in the state for peace and the successful measures taken by security forces of the state and Central government in restricting infiltration from across the Line of Control (LoC) and various other counter-insurgency actions on all fronts. Issues relating to migrants, rehabilitation of the surrendered militants, speedy implementation of Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme and PM’s Package for Return and Rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants to the state were also discussed in the Committee meeting.