Union Home Minister Amit Shah will review security arrangements for Amarnath pilgrimage and also the situation in the state for pending Assembly election.
On a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir starting on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will review security arrangements for Amarnath pilgrimage and also the situation in the state for pending Assembly election. This will be his first visit in the restive state as Home Minister and he will not visit Jammu or Ladakh divisions.
Shah was scheduled to visit the Valley for a day on June 30, but it was rescheduled as he was busy with the Union Budget, a senior official in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said.
On Wednesday, he will chair the Unified Headquarters meeting and review security arrangements as well as related apparatus for the annual pilgrimage. In view of a heightened threat alert, the state has sought 303 companies of paramilitary forces against the 238 provided in 2018. Besides the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2018, that killed 44 CRPF men, pilgrims have also been targeted in the past. In July 2017, terrorists attacked a bus of yatris returning from Anantnag, killing eight persons.
Security forces have been directed to adopt an 'all-out policy' since the Pulwama terror attack, said the official. "Largely, it has been successful," he said. Security will be beefed up along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and trekking routes leading up to the holy cave.
The security forces have been tasked with aggressive surveillance on both routes used by pilgrims: the Pahalgam track running through Anantnag district and the shorter Baltal track through Ganderbal district. The pilgrimage will begin on July 1 and conclude on August 15.
Two years ago eight Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 19 injured when terrorists attacked a bus in the Kashmir's Anantnag district on July 10, 2017.
Shah will meet state governor Satya Pal Malik and discuss the prevailing security scenario so that Assembly elections can be scheduled. For one year, the state has been without an elected government after the Election Commission decided to postpone polls for lack of security arrangement. They were to be held simultaneously with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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