PONAM MAHAJAN
JAMMU: Security agencies in the State have alerted the state police to maintain tight vigil in and around the Yatra base camps in Jammu and at other places namely Baltal and Pahalgam in Kashmir valley to ensure incident free Amarnath pilgrimage.
In Jammu even though the state police and para military forces have been deployed at numerous places to prevent any militant strike but the biggest worry remains uncovered areas including residential places in Bhagwati Nagar and Canal Road where large number of pilgrims prefer to opt lodging facilities for avoiding stringent security checks and screening.
Besides this the owners of these residential houses have never been approached by the local police authorities neither their data base has been prepared to verify the antecedents of these people.
Though the senior authorities supervising the Yatra arrangements have directed the local police authorities to prepare a list of miscreants in different parts of city and to keep a tight vigil on their suspicious activities very little effort has been made to physically verify the credentials of owners of residential places and more importantly how to keep a tab on the movement of visitors at these places.
As part of the Standard Operating Procedure, the hotel owners, lodges, rest houses share details of visitors with the local police but it will be a big challenge for the police authorities to keep everyone on their radar living in these lanes and bylanes during the Yatra period.
Similarly, the base camps in Baltal and Pahalgam remain vulnerable due to presence of tourists in the area.
Since the state government has been making all possible efforts to promote tourism in the State they have also directed the security forces to stay away from tourist places so as to give them the impression that the situation on ground zero is changing and Kashmir Valley no longer remains dotted with security bunkers and army camps. The security forces deployed along the National Highway from Lakhanpur to Pahalgam base camp have been kept in a state of high alert to deal with any type of eventuality. The state police has set up additional check points in the border areas to keep a tight vigil on the movement of suspected people.
Meanwhile, in the wake of series of militant strikes on security forces in Kashmir valley the Union Home Ministry had rushed team of senior CRPF and BSF officers to take a fresh review of the security situation in tandem with state police and other agencies which are part of the security grid. The 35 km stretch between Bijbehera and Pampore towns pose a great risk to the Yatra security as militant commanders have been frequently targeting security forces moving up and down the highway. Amarnath bound pilgrims undertaking Yatra via Baltal route also take the same route and remain vulnerable in the wake of heightened security risk
