Omar meets Sonia, Chidambaram ahead of CCS meet

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi ahead of the crucial Cabinet Committee on Security meeting which will deliberate on the issue of partial withdrawal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the state. The meeting lasted for nearly 15 minutes.

Abdullah also met Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday morning.

A much-awaited Eid package to break the impasse in Kashmir is expected to be discussed at the CCS meeting. Omar has been pressing the Centre to withdraw the AFSPA from some areas of the state and announce certain political initiatives.

The chief minister said he was working with the Centre on confidence-building measures to restore normalcy in the Valley. But genuine questions would arise on how the process could be carried forward if the violence goes on, he had said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had a threadbare discussion with Cabinet colleagues and senior party leaders in the Congress Core Group on Friday on the issue, after which indications had emerged that the government could announce some initiatives to end the three-month-long cycle of violence in the Valley.

However, a sudden flare-up of violence in Srinagar on the day of Eid appeared to have put the government in a spot. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has warned that any dilution of the AFSPA would allow the separatists to call the shots.