Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 17: Top officials of Army and other security agencies including police from J&K, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh held two-day high level review of security situation and steps required to curb any kind of militant activities or attacks originating from across the border like the one witnessed on January 2 in Pathankot in which seven security personnel and six militants were killed.
According to sources, the meeting held in Pathankot lasted two days in view of threadbare discussions on security situation both in the hinterland and the borders and was attended by top officials of Army and senior officers of civil administration, police and para-military forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) from J&K, Punjab and HP.
Significantly, the meeting discussed contribution and involvement of Village Defence Committees (VDCs), NCC cadets and members of Nehru Yuva Kendra in keeping vigil along the routes leading from the International Border in Pathankot and Jammu to National Highway to thwart militant attacks on defence, police and other vital installations.
“The high level security review and discussion on March 16 and 17 was aimed at synergizing the efforts of various security and other agencies involved in security of rear areas, particularly Army and police forces,” they said.
In addition to joint functioning, the top officials of multiple security agencies focused on ways of sharing intelligence and inter-communication to further beef up their network and ensure that there was no breach of defence installations and other vital assets of security forces, police and civil administration.
Sources said the security agencies stressed on coordinated efforts, sharing intelligence inputs and holding regular meetings to curb any kind of terror activities, originating from the borders on Jammu-Pathankot National Highway and other areas of the two neighbouring States, which have faced most of the terror attacks along the National Highway from the militants.
Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts in Jammu and Kashmir and Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts in Punjab have been identified as the most vulnerable areas, where the militants had struck in the past after infiltration and caused casualties of security personnel and civilians before being eliminated.
Pointing out that since Jammu-Pathankot railway line was also on terror radar, sources said the RPF officers were also involved in the joint meeting and they assured that they had been taking all possible measures to protect the railway line by holding regular night patrolling along the track and keeping strict surveillance on the track.
It may be mentioned here that the in July last year, the militants before striking at Dinanagar police station in Gurdaspur district had fitted several Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) with the railway bridge and track but security personnel had timely detected and defused them.
According to sources, security agencies didn’t want to take any risk following January 2 terror attack at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot in which seven security personnel including a Lieutenant Colonel and six militants were killed in the operation that lasted about three days.
After the operation, the Defence and Home Ministries had ordered security audit of all defence and other vulnerable installations and suggest measures required to prevent Pathankot type attacks in future.
The Defence Ministry has set up high level committee headed by retired vice chief of Army Lt Gen Philip Campose, who had also served as Western Army Command chief, to suggest measures for fool-proof security of defence installations including the steps required to neutralize the militants without allowing them access inside the installations, in case of any terror attack. The team is due to submit its report by March 31.
The MHA has also ordered security audit of the International Border to identify and plug the gaps to block infiltration by the militants.
Some of the senior officers, who attended the meeting, included Sub Area Commander of Army Brigadier R Kundra, Air Officer Commanding (AOC), IAF Station, Jammu, several other Army and IAF officers, Nissar Mohammad, Commandant CRPF, Kashmir Chand, Deputy Commandant Border Wing, Home Guards, Deputy Director, Group Headquarters, NCC Jammu, Deputy Director, Group Headquarters, NCC Punjab, Ashkoor Wani, DIG Jammu-Kathua range, Joginder Singh, SSP Samba, GS Toor, SSP Gurdaspur, RK Bakshi, SSP Pathankot, AS Thakur, Additional SP Mandi, NS Negi, Additional SP Kullu, Sukhdev Kumar, Zonal Director, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Jammu and SN Sharma, Zonal Director, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Punjab.
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