Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram warned on September 14 that Pakistan-based groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were continuing to plot terror attacks against India and finding support from disgruntled elements for those plans. He also pointed to joint efforts by separatists in J and K in a bid to escalate violence1.

Reports noted that the Chinese army has carried out construction activities along the international border across the Karakoram ranges in Ladakh sector for the first time since 1962. A report of the J and K government by former Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Nyoma), Tsering Norboo, for instance has charged that the Chinese have been taking land “in inches and not in yards.” Norboo noted that the Chinese construction activities, apart from being geared towards either stationing of additional personnel or for mounting surveillance activities on Indian troop movements, also threaten “the nomadic people who had been using Dokbug area (in Ladakh sector) area for grazing …” Norboo was asked by the state government to probe the Chinese incursions in Dokbug area2.

The chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on September 18 urged the central government to initiate talks with separatists in J&K as well as with Pakistan for resolution of the Kashmir issue3.

• 1. “Pak bid to forge unity among separatists in J&K: PC,” Daily Excelsior, September 15, 2009, at http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/09sep15/news.htm#1
• 2. “China taking Indian land by inches: J-K Govt.,” Assam Tribune, September 15, 2009, at http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=sep1409/at02
• 3. “Mirwaiz invites Centre for talks,” Daily Excelsior, September 19, 2009, at http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/09sep19/news1.htm#4