Union home secretary in Kashmir, meets Omar

Srinagar, May 16 (IANS) Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh Thursday discussed the prevailing law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, an official statement said here.

Singh arrived here Thursday afternoon on a two-day visit to Kashmir.

During his stay in the Kashmir Valley, the union home secretary is likely to discuss the security arrangements for this year's annual Amarnath Yatra, which begins June 25.

He is also scheduled to discuss the problems faced by traders who deal with their counterparts across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The cross-LoC trade has been going on since October 2008 on a purely barter basis in the absence of any banking facilities for the traders on the two sides of the LoC.

Local traders have alleged that instead of being a trade between the two parts of the divided Kashmir, the cross-LoC trade has been benefitting traders of Amritsar and Lahore as the trade list does not exclusively detail only the goods produced in Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Kashmir.