Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has started a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the New Delhi-controlled part of the Muslim-majority province, amid escalating security tension.
This is the first visit of its kind since Narendra Modi's government in 2019 repealed Article 370 of the Indian constitution guaranteeing the region's autonomy.
The Indian "NDTV" channel said that after his arrival - yesterday, Saturday - the Minister of Interior chaired a meeting with the unified leadership to review the situation on the ground in the region.
Shah - who is described as a right-wing Hindu and accused by critics of spreading hatred towards Muslims - that strict measures will be taken against "those who want to destroy peace in the region," as he put it.
He added that the abolition of Article 370 of the constitution "brought democracy to the level of the grassroots, after it was limited to a few families."
Kashmir has been in escalating tension for weeks, as a number of civilians were killed in separate attacks, including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, and a number of militants were killed in confrontations with Hindi forces.
And Hindi forces launched a large-scale security campaign in which hundreds of Kashmiris were arrested on suspicion of association with banned groups or anti-India armed groups.
Pakistan condemned the campaign of arrests, which it described as arbitrary, and accused India of violating human rights.
The dispute over Kashmir, between Pakistan and India, began since their independence from Britain in 1947, and three wars broke out between them in 1948, 1965 and 1971, killing nearly 70,000 of both sides.
The people of Kashmir are demanding independence from India or the region's annexation to Pakistan, and Kashmiri armed groups have been fighting Indian forces for more than 3 decades.