“There was a situation when civil disobedience (in the Valley) was at its peak, when stone-pelters would come in thousands, terrorists could pick their targets as they wished and Hurriyat would give a call (for bandh) whenever they liked and paralyse everything,” he added. “Today, the situation has changed. Security forces have an upper hand. It has become difficult for stone-pelters to gather a crowd. The Hurriyat has been exposed,” the minister said. The central government has advised the Jammu and Kashmir government to withdraw cases against first-time offenders involved in stone-pelting during the 2016 unrest. At the same time, the Centre has also offered to bear the cost of treatment of those who were injured in firing by security forces.