Thaindian News

Jammu, Dec 10 (IANS) In what appeared to be an effort to mend fences after the recent exchange of statements on shootouts and demilitarisation, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had dinner with the army’s Northern Command chief Lt Gen B.S. Jaswal, sources said Friday.

Abdullah went to the Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur Thursday and had dinner with Jaswal, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Northern Command, informed sources said.

The chief minister clarified to Jaswal that he had nothing against the army, the sources said.

And Jaswal, who had tendered an apology for an “inadvertent statement” issued by a “junior officer of the command”, also reciprocated the sentiments, they added.

However, there was no official word about what transpired between the two at the dinner meeting.

Jaswal had Dec 2 apologised to Abdullah for a statement that a shootout had occurred in Srinagar earlier because of the state government’s insistence on thinning out troops in the city.

He had also clarified to Abdullah that the army statement had been unauthorisedly issued by the command public relations officer a day after the Srinagar shootout in which three men said to be terrorists were killed.

Jaswal told Abdullah that the Northern Command had nothing to do with the statement.

The statement by the command public relations officer, which led to the row, had said Abdullah had “given in” to the clamour of demilitarisation and dismantling of bunkers in Srinagar, which had “delighted” the separatists.

This had irked Abdullah, who, while speaking at a public meeting in south Kashmir’s Anantnag town, had said he would persist with his demand for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and dismantling of bunkers in places where “militancy has declined and peace has returned”.