Army to return to barracks in a few days: Pillai

"I am quite hopeful that army will be derequisitioned at the earliest. We expect that the army would go back in the next few days. I think in a very near future," Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said.

He said so far the curfew has been holding well and there would be some relaxation from tonight till tomorrow evening because of a festival in holy Hazratbal.

The Home Secretary said the army has been requisitioned by the state government and they are currently deployed in the periphery of the city.Asked whether there has been an increase in violence in Jammu and Kashmir whenever there is an Indo-Pak dialogue, Pillai said it was a fact that there has been slight increase in violence whenever there is peace talks or efforts to normalise relations between the two countries.

"I think both governments-- India and Pakistan are determined to carry forward the peace process. We have initiated the dialogue that has to be moved forward step by step. We are quite confident that we will be able to thwart any attempt by any group to disrupt the peace process," he told DD News.

On the involvement of Pakistan-based terror outfits in the recent violence in Jammu and Kashmir, he said there have been a large number of interceptions of telephone conversations which suggested so.

The Home Secretary also said funds are being channelised through the state through various means, including Western Union Money Transfer, to create disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir and security forces detected 12 such cases and action has been taken on this.

Pillai also said there was no restriction on the media but on bulk SMS's which were being used to bring crowd to the streets to create disturbance.