‘Venue, places of visit by Intl leaders to be fully secured’
Next meet to be held in New Delhi by top officials
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 7: A team of Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) reached Srinagar today to review arrangements for G20 meeting and security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir.
The visit of the high-level team will be followed by another two-day meeting in New Delhi, most likely on April 15 and 16 on Jammu and Kashmir security scenario with particular reference to G20 meeting in Srinagar scheduled to be held in May.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Ministries of External Affairs and Home besides the Jammu and Kashmir Government have geared up to ensure peaceful G20 meeting in Srinagar and security arrangements are being made well in advance to ensure that there is no untoward incident in the Valley.
“In view of this, a team of MHA and IB comprising senior officers reached Srinagar this evening and soon after their arrival closeted with top officers of police and Intelligence agencies to review security situation,” sources said.
The Intelligence agencies have reports that the militants and their mentors sitting in Pakistan were badly frustrated due to elimination of militants especially their top commanders and their inability to strike in the Valley. In such a situation, the militants could strike at soft targets ahead of G20 meeting, which is a major international event in the Valley, they added.
According to them, the high-level MHA and IB team will be meeting senior civil and police officers also to finalize security arrangements comprehensively ahead of G20 meeting as well as during the meeting in entire Jammu and Kashmir especially the Valley.
Venue of the meeting and places where G20 delegates will visit will come under 24×7 security net nearly week ahead of the scheduled summit date, sources said, adding along with Jammu and Kashmir Police, the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) will guard the venue, places the delegates will visit and other vulnerable areas where the militants could strike. All such places will be fully secured, sources said.
The Central and Jammu and Kashmir Governments were determined to make fool-proof security arrangements for G20 meeting.
Sources said the visiting team will also review general security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Intelligence agencies are of the view that there is also little presence of militants in some districts of the Jammu region and they could also strike there just for the sake of making a news ahead of G20 meeting. Worthwhile to mention here that two Pakistani militants involved in carnage of seven members of minority community, two of them minors, at Dhangri in Rajouri district remained untraced even after more than three months of the killings.
“All such possible activities have to be curbed,” sources said.
Meanwhile, as per the sources, after return of the team to New Delhi, the MHA is likely to review Jammu and Kashmir security situation in New Delhi on April 15 and 16. In this meeting, besides G20 meeting, upcoming annual pilgrimage of Shri Amarnath Ji shrine will also figure.
Though Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) is yet to announce dates for the pilgrimage, there are unconfirmed reports that the yatra this year could last around 60 days for which additional paramilitary forces have to be deployed by the Union Home Ministry.
On its part, top civil and police officials of Jammu and Kashmir Government have been regularly reviewing all kind of arrangements for G20 meeting including security, accommodation, places of visit etc.
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