Additional central paramilitary forces made available this time for Amarnath Yatra: IGP

#10 ultras active in Kishtwar

25/06/2019

JAMMU, Jun 24: Additional central paramilitary forces have been made available to Jammu and Kashmir this year to ensure peaceful pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, scheduled to begin next month, a senior police officer said Monday.
Inspector General of Police, Jammu, M K Sinha said the availability of more forces compared to previous years have resulted in strengthening of counter-infiltration grid, deployment of road-opening parties all along the highway and strengthening of the security around camps housing the pilgrims.
Six special teams comprising police, the SDRF and magistrates would be deployed in landslide prone areas along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Ramban district to ensure minimum disruption during the yatra, he said.
"Though there is no specific input about threat to the yatra, all necessary security arrangements are in place as the sensitivity increases during the pilgrimage. We have got additional central paramilitary forces this time compared to previous years and have accordingly made foolproof arrangements," Sinha told reporters here this evening.
He said two companies of the BSF were inducted and deployed with the border police, who are in the third tier in the counter-infiltration grid along the international border, to augment security and ensure adequate manpower to guard the border roads linking with the highway from Lakhanpur to Jammu.
"The yatra crosses five districts of Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Udhampur and Ramban in Jammu region covering a total distance of 268-kms. The whole highway has been divided into different zones and sectors for better security," he said, adding that each zone will be headed by a superintendent of police, while non-gazetted police officers will be responsible for the security in assigned sectors.
"The highway check posts have been increased and the laterals connecting with the highway will be manned and no one will be allowed on the highway from there during the movement of the pilgrims," he said. Pilgrim camps, registration centres and community kitchens will be guarded round-the-clock, he said.
"In fact, the langar (community kitchen) operators were given conditional permission that they will install CCTV cameras and ensure proper lighting arrangement in the peripheral areas of their camping site as part of the enhanced security arrangement," the IGP said. At least 10 local terrorists, mostly belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, are active in Kishtwar district, Inspector General of Police, Jammu, M K Sinha said Monday.
"A total of 10 terrorists eight belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and two to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) are active in Kishtwar district. All of them are local youths," Sinha told reporters in response to a question about the number of active terrorists in the hilly district of Jammu region. Kishtwar was declared terrorism-free over a decade ago, but was rattled by the killing of State Secretary of BJP Anil Parihar and his brother Ajeet Parihar on November 1 last year, followed by assassination of senior RSS leader Chanderkant Sharma and his security guard inside a health centre on April 9.
So far, the terrorists behind the killings have evaded arrests even as security forces launched a massive operation to track them down and had two brief gunfights with the hiding terrorists on May 31 in Appan area of Marwah and again on June 21 in Keshwan forest.
While two special police officers were injured in Marwah encounter, a suspected terrorist was believed to have been injured in Keshwan, but the terrorists managed to escape from both the places.
Asked whether it was worrying for the security forces that the ultras managed to give them a slip after establishing contact with them, he said, "We have learnt our lessons and will go fully prepared next time when there is an information about their presence."
"When we received information about presence of terrorists in Marwah, we sent an advance party for recce of the area but unfortunately it came under fire and the ultras fled. Same was the case in Keshwan," he said.

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