6 Union Secys, top brass from J&K, CAPFs, IB to attend
*Call on additional paramilitary forces to be taken
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 12: Six Secretaries of different Ministries of the Government of India, top officials from civil administration, police and Intelligence agencies from Jammu and Kashmir and heads of NHAI, BRO, Central Armed Police Force (CAPFs) and Intelligence Bureau will meet at the Union Ministry of Home Affairs at 3 pm in New Delhi tomorrow for high-level review of security situation in J&K and annual pilgrimage of Shri Amarnath Ji shrine.
Some of the officers will attend the meeting physically while others will to join it virtually. The meeting will be chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
Besides the Home Secretary, five other Secretaries of the Government of India who will attend the meeting include Defence Secretary, Secretary Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Secretary Earth Sciences, Secretary Telecommunication and Secretary Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Additional Chief Secretary Home RK Goyal, Principal Secretary Health and Medical Education Navin Choudhary, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh and Additional DGP CID Rashmi Ranjan Swain will represent Jammu and Kashmir.
Other officers who will join the meeting include the Chairman National Highway Authority of India, Director Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Director Generals (DGs) of BSF, CRPF and BRO.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the high-level meeting will review arrangements for annual pilgrimage of Shri Amarnath Ji shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas beginning June 30. The 43-day long pilgrimage will conclude on August 11 coinciding with Raksha Bandhan.
“All arrangements including fool-proof security for the pilgrimage will come up for review at the meeting,” sources said, adding the meeting will also discuss and finalize other arrangements for the yatris along Jammu-Pathankot and Jammu-Srinagar National Highways, base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal, Yatri Niwas Jammu and holy cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji.
This will be second high-level review of Shri Amarnath yatra arrangements by the Union Home Secretary. Last month, he travelled to Srinagar to review measures for peaceful conduct of the pilgrimage for three days.
Only yesterday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha reviewed yatra security and militancy related situation at the Unified Headquarters meeting at Srinagar with top brass of Army, civil administration, Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Intelligence agencies among others.
“The Central Government as well as Jammu and Kashmir Government are concerned over yatra security. They want fool-proof security arrangements to be in place for the pilgrimage,” sources said.
A call on additional deployment of paramilitary forces is also likely to be taken during tomorrow’s meeting.
They added that the Central and J&K Governments don’t want to take any chance with the yatra arrangements and, therefore, more high-level security review meetings are also likely to be held in future. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also likely to review the yatra arrangements shortly.
This time, security arrangements are going to be more stringent as the pilgrimage is taking place after two years. In 2019 when the yatra was last held, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had sanctioned 336 additional paramilitary companies for the yatra. This year, the number is expected to be around 400 companies.
The yatra couldn’t be conducted in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID pandemic while it was cut short by about 15 days in 2019 ahead of Central Government’s August 5 decisions to scrap special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate erstwhile State into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
This is after gap of two years that pilgrimage to Lord Shiva’s holy cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji in South Kashmir Himalayas is being revived as COVID is now almost over.
The Home Department and Police Headquarters are working out details of the paramilitary companies which would be sought from the Union Home Ministry for the yatra.
“The details will be worked out this week and sent to the Home Ministry,” sources said.
As per the reports, the Jammu and Kashmir Government could seek at least 400 additional companies of CAPFs from the Centre for making fool-proof security arrangements for Shri Amarnath Ji pilgrimage. The numbers are being worked out taking into account targeted killings by the militants and steps required to protect the soft targets as well as the pilgrims all along the National Highways including Pathankot-Jammu and Jammu-Srinagar besides twin tracks of Baltal and Nunwan, base camp in Jammu and all other vulnerable areas.
Sources said the Central and Jammu and Kashmir Governments are likely to take services of Army, BSF and ITBP also for annual pilgrimage though a final decision in this regard is yet to be taken.
While Army could man some places of Pathankot-Jammu and Srinagar-Jammu National Highways besides Shri Amarnath Ji cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas, the BSF could also be deployed on the highways. The ITBP might be placed in some areas of twin tracks.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
