New Delhi, February 12
The Centre tonight decided to further extend ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir with some conditions attached to it, informed sources said.

A decision to this effect was taken “unanimously” by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and attended among others, by the Home Minister and the Defence Minister.

The exact decision of the meeting was not officially disclosed tonight by the government, following the convention of not announcing such a decision when Parliament is in session.

“It would not be appropriate on my part to disclose the exact decision as Parliament is in session,” the Union Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, told newsmen while emerging out of the meeting.

The CCS meeting, held a few hours after the all-party meeting unanimously supporting the extension of the truce, took the decision after 80 minutes’ deliberation at the Prime Minister’s residence this evening.

Mr Advani said the Prime Minister would make a detailed statement in both Houses of Parliament after question hour tomorrow.

The Army Chief, Mr S. Padmanabhan, who was also present at the meeting, apprised the CCS of the finer details of the ground situation in the Kashmir valley, following the announcement of unconditional ceasefire for the first time in November.

The CCS reviewed the ceasefire issue while taking into account the recent terrorist killing of innocent people.

The meeting was attended by the Union Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha and the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary, Mr Brajesh Mishra, amongst others.

Briefing newspersons on the conclusion of a two-and-a-half-hour all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan, said there was unanimity among the leaders of all political parties that the ceasefire should be extended.

Even as Mr Mahajan claimed that “there was no opposition to the government’s initiative of ceasefire”, the National Conference maintained neutrality on the issue, saying that its main concern was to ensure the security of the common people, strengthen patriotic forces and seek greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.

“Ceasefire or no ceasefire is not our main concern. Our concern is the security of the people”, the National Conference leaders, Mr Sharifuddin Shariq and Mr Abdul Rasid Shaheen, who represented their party at the meeting, said.

To take all political parties into confidence, the government held today’s meeting ahead of the Cabinet Committee on Security. At the beginning of the meeting, the government made a presentation that showed the positive side of continuing with the ceasefire.

The meeting began with the Intelligence Bureau giving a 35-minute presentation on the latest ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Then, the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, briefed the leaders about the government’s assessment of the situation arising from the ceasefire which he said had found support of the people of the state.

The ceasefire had also found favour with the international community and resulted in the isolation of Pakistan.

Further, there was virtually no exchange of fire along the border, Mr Advani said, informing the leader and added that militancy still continued as was evident from the incidents at the Red Fort here and the massacre of Sikhs in the state.

While political leaders on one hand urged the government to ensure the protection of the lives of people who had become soft targets for foreign mercenaries, on other hand, they wanted proper publicity and a drive against militants which had resulted in the killings of 215 of them in the past three months alone as it was necessary for restoring confidence of the people.

For the first time, all political parties were told about the ground realities in the valley where cross-border firing had subsided significantly, although militant activity, particularly by foreign mercenaries, continued. People in the valley were also satisfied with the ceasefire.

Mr Mahajan said the decision of the CCS would be announced in Parliament tomorrow and pointed out that of the 30 leaders present at the meeting, as many as 25 expressed their views, with no one opposing the ceasefire extension.

No one even suggested any time limit for the extension, Mr Mahajan said in reply to a question and added that they also asked the government to keep the dialogue going with the Hurriyat Conference, National Conference, Congress and other parties and the people of the state to find a permanent solution to the problem.

However, there was no discussion on the issue of giving visas to Hurriyat leaders to go Pakistan to hold talks with militant and terrorist groups there.

The ceasefire should not remain “an end in itself”, the leaders stressed.

“We are satisfied with the government’s presentation,” Mrs Sonia Gandhi said after the meeting and added that the meeting had been primarily called to inform political leaders about the “positive effects” of the ceasefire.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Dr Manmohan Singh, while supporting the peace move in the state, said the Congress had made it very clear that the extension of the ceasefire was not an end in itself.

Public opinion should be ascertained and the people of Jammu and Kashmir taken into confidence, he said.

The Lok Shakti leader, Mr Ramkrishna Hegde, said while most of leaders were fully supportive of the government’s initiative on Jammu and Kashmir, they also cautioned the government that it should ensure to protect “soft targets”.

The Nationalist Congress Party leader, Mr P.A. Sangma, said most of the political parties wanted extension of the ceasefire, but they felt that it was up to the government to decide.

His party was “quite satisfied” with the government’s presentation on the issue, Mr Sangma said, adding that there seemed to be a communication gap between the government and the people.

Apart from Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani, those in the meeting from the Government side included the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, the Information Technology Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan, Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Mr S.S. Dhindsa, Minister for Water Resources, Mr Arjun Sethi.