‘No threat to Amarnath Yatra’
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Mar 19: Maintaining that that there was no specific threat to the upcoming Amarnath yatra which is commencing from June 28, Director General of J&K Police, Dilbag Singh said that all security arrangements for the annual pilgrimage in South Kashmir were being made on the earlier pattern.
“There is no specific threat to the yatra and all the requisite arrangement will be put in place like every year,” he said while talking to media persons at the Police Training School in Sunjwan, here today.
While elaborating, the DGP said that there is a set drill and Police knows what kind of security is required on the highways, camps, community kitchens and on the twin tracks of Pahalgam and Baltal. The arrangements are being done on the same pattern, he added.
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Informing that at least three dozen misguided youth were shunned from the path of violence and joining militant ranks, DGP said that the Government’s efforts to wean away youth from terrorism and bring them back to the mainstream were on. “Such efforts are on for the past few years and in 2020, at least three dozen such youth shunned the path of violence on the request of their parents. They are now living a peaceful life,” he said.
“And, now even during the encounters we give opportunity to the terrorists to surrender. At least a dozen such terrorists surrendered during the encounters last year and we will continue this process,” Dilbag Singh further said adding that after shunning the path of violence, such youth also realized futility of gun and expressed gratitude to the security forces for saving their lives and bringing them back to the mainstream.
At the same time, the DGP said, the security forces also achieved big successes in anti-insurgency operation and killed 12 terrorist this year besides arresting three dozen others belonging to various modules in Jammu and Kashmir, so far.
“In North Kashmir a top commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Gani Khawaja was killed and similarly Jaish commander Sajjad Afgani was killed in Shopian. Then two top commanders of Lashkar-e-Mustafa and the TRF-Hidyatullah Malik and Zahoor Ahmad Rather were captured alive in Jammu,” he said.
In response to a query, the DGP admitted that sticky bombs were indeed a new challenge for the security forces as it was not there earlier. “It is a new thing. It is a small IED with a magnet, which can be easily planted in vehicles and metals. It is a threat but we have our security drills and will take care of them,” he said.
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