The Union Home Ministry is expected to conduct a final security check of the upcoming Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir with all stakeholders on Tuesday, official sources said.
The meeting will be held at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in North Block and will be chaired by Home Minister Ajay Bhalla. Chiefs of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) such as CRPF, BSF and ITBP and senior officials from intelligence, army, Jammu and Kashmir administration and Amarnath shrine board are expected to attend the meeting, sources said.
The 62-day annual pilgrimage is scheduled to begin on July 1 and continue until August 31. This will be the last security check before the start of the Amarnath Yatra, sources said. They said the meeting is also expected to discuss the “locational” deployment of security forces, including a major change this time that the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and about half a dozen posts will not be deployed at the cave shrine. along the pilgrimage route.
For decades, the CRPF has traditionally guarded the cave sanctuary, located at an altitude of 3,888 meters in the southern Kashmir Himalayas, and several important pilgrim camps on the way. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has been deputed to guard the cave shrine this time and the CRPF will be deployed just below the steps, sources said.
ITBP and BSF troops will also be deployed at six other locations along the route, a task normally handled by the CRPF. Sources said this was done in view of “emerging security threats and challenges” and in line with the “requirements of the Jammu and Kashmir Police”.
Officials told that a large number of CRPF troops have been deployed in violence-hit Manipur and for panchayat polls in West Bengal, the country’s main internal security force has been asked to secure the yatra route in the Kashmir Valley where pilgrims will board buses before starting the climb.
Amarnath Yatra pilgrims travel through two routes – Baltal and Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. Last year, 3.45 million people visited the cave shrine and the number could go up to five million this time, officials said.
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