Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 10: A high level meeting of police, para-military, Army, Intelligence and civil administration reviewed security scenario in Jammu region ahead of Independence Day. Other security related issues like infiltration attempts, digging of tunnel into Indian territory on the International Border, law and order situation especially in the wake of August 15 also figured in the meeting, which was chaired by Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Prasad.
This was the first visit of Mr Prasad to Jammu region after assuming the charge of State police chief on July 23 in Srinagar.
The DGP reviewed security situation in Jammu region in two meeting this afternoon. The first meeting was attended by the IGPs of all wings of police, IG CRPF J S Sandhu, DIG BSF N S Jamwal, two Colonels from 16 Corps Nagrota and 26 Div Satwari, DIGs of four range besides Armed and IRP, SSPs of all 10 districts and SSPs of Airport, Railways, Security, Crime and PCR besides Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pradeep Gupta and Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma.
Mr Prasad later held another round of meeting exclusively with police officers including IGP Jammu Dilbagh Singh, DIGs of 4 ranges in Jammu region and SSPs of all 10 districts.
Official sources told the Excelsior that in the first meeting in which representatives of Army, para-military, Intelligence agencies, police and civil administration were present, Mr Prasad had an in-depth review of security scenario in Jammu region, Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) for about one and a half hour.
He was given a detailed briefing by the top officials of all agencies in their areas of operation. The prime focus of the meeting was security arrangements for Independence Day celebrations to ensure peaceful functions all over.
As Independence Day functions remained vulnerable to militant threats every year, the meeting cautioned the district SPs to guard against fidayeen or any other terror attack as intentions on other side of LoC and IB were not good, which was evident from the recent spurt in firing at both LoC and IB and detection of a tunnel into Indian territory dug from Pakistan side in Samba sector.
Sources said the senior officers of police and all other agencies besides the civil administration gave their perception of the situation to the State police chief.
The DGP was reported to have expressed satisfaction with the fact that all infiltration attempts on the LoC and IB have been thwarted and two hardcore militants, one of whom was involved in last year’s Delhi High Court blast, have been killed recently and another captured in Doda.
He was told that only 27 active militants have been left in the Jammu region now.
Sources said the DGP also reviewed situation arising out of detection of over 500 meters long underground tunnel into Indian territory, dug by Pakistan authorities from their side, at forward village of Chechwal in Samba sector.
Security and Intelligence agencies briefed the State police chief that a number of militants were waiting across the LoC and IB in Jammu region to cross over into this side. The ultras have made infiltration attempts repeatedly, which have been foiled by Army and BSF.
The DGP stressed for taking extra ordinary security arrangements along LoC, IB and internal areas to ensure peaceful Independence Day celebrations
The first meeting was attended among others by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pradeep Gupta, IGP Jammu Dilbagh Singh, IG CRPF J S Sandhu, IG CID Dr B Srinivas, IG Armed Gulzar Singh Slathia, DIG BSF NS Jamwal, two Colonels of Army from 16 Corps and 26 Division, DIG Jammu-Kathua range JP Singh, DIG Doda range Gareeb Dass, DIG Rajouri range M K Sinha, DIG Armed Johnny Williams and DIG IRP Mr Phungchok, SSPs of all 10 districts of Jammu region, SP Airport Ashok Sharma, SP Security Rupinder Chalotra, SSP Crime Nissar Ahmed, SSP Railways Shiv Kumar Sharma and SSP PCR Vijay Kumar and Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma.
The IGP Jammu, DIGs of Jammu range and 10 district SPs attended the second exclusive meeting of police.
Sources said the exclusive police meeting chaired by the DGP was also aimed at a detailed introduction and inter-action with range officers like the DIGs and SSPs of all 10 districts. DIG Udhampur-Reasi range Jagjit Kumar couldn’t make it to the meeting as he was on leave due to death of his mother.
The IGP, DIGs and SSPs gave a detailed brief of the situation in their zones and districts to the DGP.
Mr Prasad would undertake visits to all districts of Jammu region in due course of time, sources said.
Late in the evening, Mr Prasad had a detailed inter-action with prominent citizens including Mangat Ram Sharma, former Deputy Chief Minister, B S Slathia, president, Bar Association, Y V Sharma, president, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chander Gulati, Annil Suri, Taranjit Singh `Tony’, Rattan Lal Gupta and Shamsher Singh Manhas among others.
He also inter-acted with retired police officers and distributed computers, laptops and other items to Central Government Pensioners Association under Civic Action Programme.
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