Home Minister visiting Poonch today to meet sufferers of Pak shelling; is also scheduled to address BSF jawans
SRINAGAR: Immediately after his arrival in Jammu on a two-day visit on Thursday evening, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, closeted with senior officials of Jammu and Kashmir administration, uniformed forces and intelligence agencies for a security review meeting to address critical security issues in the backdrop of the recent India-Pakistan escalation triggered by the Pahalgam terror attack.
The official sources in Jammu said that the discussions revolved around key focus areas particularly the upcoming Amarnath yatra. The Home Minister has prioritized security arrangements for the annual pilgrimage to the 3,888m high revered cave-shrine in Kashmir hills, scheduled from July 3 to August 9 and expected to draw over half a million pilgrims from across the country and abroad, given its significance and the heightened security concerns following the April 22 terror attack in Baisaran meadow near Kashmir Valley’s premier resort Pahalgam. Alongside Baltal, Pahalgam serves as one of the two primary base camps for the yatra.
The meeting held at Jammu’s Raj Bhavan also discussed the recent military escalation along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) with Pakistan, its aftermath and set of measures initiated by the security forces for stopping cross-border infiltration in J&K, the official sources said.
The meeting was attended also by J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, DGP Nalin Prabhat, Chief Secretary Atul Dulloo, Divisional Commissioner and IGPs of both Jammu and Valley regions, senior most officers of various Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), the BSF and other paramilitary forces, National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and various other Central and Union Territory intelligence agencies besides top Army commanders.
This is the Home Minister’s first visit to J&K after India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, described by the government as the biggest ever response to terrorism and a resolute message to the perpetrators of the Pahalgam carnage that such heinous acts will face unrelenting consequences. Shah was received by Lt. Governor Sinha and other senior government functionaries at the Jammu’s technical airport from where he drove straight to the Raj Bhawan.
On Friday, the Home Minister will fly to the frontier district of Poonch where he is scheduled to address the BSF jawans at their Unit Headquarters at Khanetar, about 9-m from the Poonch city. He will also meet the families of the civilians killed in the recent Pakistani firing and shelling at the Dak Bungalow in Poonch city. He will distribute appointment letters among next of kin of the slain, an official said.
Shah will pay obeisance at Poonch’s historic Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha which with an Islamic seminary, a mosque and a Geeta Bhawan were also hit in the cross-LoC shelling between May 7 and 10. As many as 14 civilians including 12-year-old twins Zain Ali and Urwa Fatima were killed and several others injured in the Pakistani shelling which also left a trail of destruction in Poonch and neighbouring Rajouri district.
The Home Minister had last visited J&K on April 23, a day after 25 Hindu tourists and a local Muslim horse-handler were killed in a terror attack at Baisaran to review the security situation. Earlier he had conducted a three-day tour of J&K from April 6.
