Amarnath Yatra : Army to inducts 5000 more soldiers for security

Indian Army has inducted five more battalions (around 5,000 men) to secure the Amarnath Yatra and the strategic section of the Srinagar-Jammu highway in sensitive south Kashmir.

“We have deployed two battalions for the Amaranth yatra. In addition, three battalions have been deployed in south Kashmir to cover the national highway,” said Lieutenant General JS Sandhu, general officer commanding (GoC), 15 corps.

The Army troops are in addition to 200 companies (each company has strength of 100 men) of the paramilitary forces deployed for the Amarnath yatra. This is in addition to the local police and other security forces presently posted in Kashmir for different law and order and anti militancy duties.

The first batch of yatris was flagged off from Jammu base camp on Wednesday. The yatra will officially take off from the Kashmir Valley on Thursday when the first batch of pilgrims will start trekking towards the cave shrine from Baltal and Pahalgam routes for darshan of the holy Shiv Lingum.

This year, the challenges for the security forces are manifold. The yatra has to pass from the South Kashmir axis, which is considered sensitive and volatile both as far as militancy and stone pelting is considered.

Plus the stretch of the Srinagar –Jammu highway from Lower Munda to Pantha Chowk in south Kashmir has been the cause of worry for the security forces given the brazen militant attacks on convoys. On June 3, two soldiers were killed and four others injured when militants attacked the Army convoy near Lower Mundain Qazigund area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.

On June 24, Lashkar-e-Taiba members ambushed the CRPF party killing an officer and injuring another on the highway at Pantha Chowk. Later two terrorists who took shelter in neigbouring Delhi Public School and after 24 hours the duo was killed by the security forces.

“Geelani sahib has said there is no threat to Amaranth Yatra. In addition, we have got the reports that probably they (terrorists) will try to attack it. We have deployed forces. Our efforts will be to protect the yatris so that yatra continues without any problem,” said Lieutenant General Sandhu.