Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, June 8: Army today said that there is no specific threat to Amarnath Yatra commencing next month but it has taken measures including aerial surveillance to prevent anti-national elements from disrupting it.
Lt Gen Subrata Saha, General Officer Commanding of Srinagar-based Chinar Corps told reporters on the sidelines of a function at Army Public School here that there is no specific threat to the two month long annual Amarnath yatra. “At this point in time, we do keep getting generic inputs on the movement of terrorists as it were. So, to relate anything specific to the yatra, I would not do that”, he said.
The GOC said that troops are providing environmental security to yatra for which aerial surveillance is also being conducted to track the movement of anti-social elements. “We have kept the area under aerial surveillance and are studying the daily feed. The idea is to be situationally aware by effective intelligence means and able to prevent any anti-national elements from trying to disrupt the yatra,” he said.
Lt General Saha said that elaborate arrangements are being made to counter any security threat. “By and large the dispositions would be basically designed to ward off similar threats and depending on the inputs that we get, we will keep modifying or adapting our dispositions to meet the threat as it emerges,” he added.
The GOC said Army has launched “Operation Shiva” to provide environmental security for the yatra that commences from July 2. “The yatra is starting from July 2 and Army will be providing environmental security to secure all the approaches to the routes of the yatra, including the Chandanwari route and the Baltal track,” he said. He said that troops will also provide medical assistance to the yatris and communication assistance to the administration dealing with yatra.
When asked about the Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI) group which was behind the attacks on telecom companies in Kashmir, the GOC said that it appears to be a fringe element. “As far as LeI is concerned, by and large it appears to be a fringe group which is trying to create a sense of terror in the areas in which they are operating,” he said.
Lt General Saha said that Army is investigating both LeI and Tehreek-e-Taliban and have taken the surfacing of these posters seriously. “There is another group Tehreek-e-Taliban, there are some posters that have come, that is still being investigated because any such indicator, it is my belief, must be taken seriously and investigated to its logical conclusion,” he said.
The GOC said that they are keeping a watch on terrorism from across the Line of Control (LoC) and other outfits like Taliban and ISIS. “As far as terrorism from across the Line of Control (LoC) is concerned, all these outfits are linked somewhere and there is cross-pollination between their cadres at some point as well. Their linkages and effect is meaningful to us. We think it is important to take all such inputs into our calculus when we carry out our dispositions, when we carry out our operations over here,” he said.
Lt General Saha said that there have been frequent infiltration attempts from across the LoC and they are prepared to deal with them. He said Army foiled three infiltration attempts in the past fortnight.”This year, we had a little late snowfall, so that is the reason probably you can see some kind of a desperation which is there. We saw the first attempt on May 25 and second attempt of May 30-31. Now, just two days back we had this next attempt. So far eight militants have been eliminated while trying to infiltrate and we are prepared to take on any more attempts,” he said.
“Even on the night of Saturday-Sunday, there was an attempt that had taken place beyond Jumagund in Keran sector in Kupwara district. There was a contact, after that they left that place in a rush and what we recovered from there was a wire cutter and a walking stick,” the GOC said.
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