Cong's Digvijaya warns Centre on 'forceful move' in Kashmir

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Saturday that the BJP should tread carefully in the restive Jammu and Kashmir, a day after the Centre issued an advisory asking Amarnath pilgrims and tourists to leave the Valley as soon as possible.

Speaking to reporters here, Singh said a forceful decision in the state could inflict a massive loss on the country.

"Have the heavens fallen that you (Centre) have called off the Amarnath yatra? A force of 20,000 (troopers) has been sent there (J-K). It is an indication of a big exercise," he told reporters.

"But the BJP (government) should keep in mind the Valley's sensitivity and work thoughtfully. If they move ahead forcefully, there is a possibility that the country could suffer massively," Singh claimed.

The senior Congress leader went on to add that the security advisory to Amarnath yatris and tourists inconvenienced lakhs of pilgrims.

"I don't have faith in this government (Centre). I have not seen a bigger liar than this government. We are seeing acts committed by terrorists daily," he alleged.

Addressing a joint briefing of security forces in Kashmir on Friday, Lt Gen Sarabjit Singh Dhillon said that a massive operation by forces along the route of the Amarnath yatra had yielded a huge a cache of arms, including a mine with a Pakistan Ordnance Factory stamp and an American M-24 sniper rifle.

He said that the searches were carried on the basis of specific intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based terrorists might target the yatra using improvised explosive devices and attack pilgrims.

The advisory asking the pilgrims and tourists to "curtail their stay" and "return as soon as possible" was released after this.