Chandigarh, July 13
The Centre is keeping a close watch on the law-and-order situation in Punjab as militant groups are still trying to revive terrorist activities in the state.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said today that though Punjab had not seen any militant violence in the past few years, intelligence agencies were aware that terrorist groups were trying to revive militancy in the state.

Chidambaram said this soon after attending the Chief Ministers’ 26th Northern Zonal Council Conference here today. The minister said that the Home Ministry was keeping a very close watch on Punjab and other states.

He said that there was regular information-sharing between Punjab and the Centre and in this, there was a common perception that the threat of terrorism remains.

The Home Minister said that security agencies had arrested 47 militants from Punjab in 2010 and nine persons in 2011. After the seizure of 5.65 kg of RDX explosive from Ambala in October 2011 and the subsequent arrest of two Babbar Khalsa militants in 2011, the Centre has stepped up its vigil on anti-national elements.

But he added that the threat from militants was not as marked as it was in the 1980s and 90s. “The potential of terrorism has not been completely wiped out from Punjab,” he said.

However, with regard to a question about the Centre’s reaction to the setting up of the Blue Star Memorial inside the Darbar Sahib Complex, Chidambaram was evasive. He said that there were two versions about the motive of the memorial.

The first being that it was being built in the memory of the persons killed during the Army operation, which included persons who propagated and practiced extremism. The second version was that it was just another gurdwara.

He said that since the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandak Committee (SGPC) had got the foundation laid, he could not say would shape it would take.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni, who was also present, appealed to all sections of society not to do anything in the Harmandir Sahib that would not be acceptable to any other section of society.

She said she was making this appeal as a Punjabi and not as a politician. She said Punjabis could not afford to vitiate the hard-earned peace in the state.

Referring to the law-and-order situation in the country, the Union Home Minister said that terrorist violence in the country had been contained and no terrorist-related incident had occurred during the current year.

He said that earlier at least five major incidents used to take place every year on average. During the three-and-a-half years of UPA-II, only three incidents of terror had taken place in the country.

Chidambaram said that all major terrorist groups in the North-East were engaged in dialogue with the Government of India.

In Jammu and Kashmir, violence had dropped drastically and in the current year, only seven civilians and eight security personnel had lost their lives as compared to hundreds of killings earlier. The return of peace in J&K had facilitated the travel of nine lakh people to the valley and so far, over 3.7 lakh pilgrims had visited the Amarnath shrine.

On Maoist violence, Chidambaram said that states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha were badly affected, but things were improving in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal on account of police action and boosting of the development process.