J&K Police on Saturday said that 100 new companies of paramilitary forces, which have been cleared for deployment in Kashmir, were not an addition to the existing security grid, but replacement for equal strength of the forces, on way out from the Valley.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) law and order(security), Munir Khan asked people not to pay heed to rumors.
“The new companies arriving in Kashmir are not additionalforces. They are replacement for equal number of companies which are in Kashmirsince Municipal and Panchayat polls last year, and have to attend training invarious parts of the country,” Khan said.
The Union Home Ministry order mentions that 100 additionalcompanies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been cleared fordeployment in J&K, to strengthen the counter-insurgency (CI) grid andmaintain law and order situation in the state.
The additional deployment will include 50 companies of CRPF,30 companies of SSB and 10 companies each of BSF and ITBP.
“We can’t retain the training companies for law and orderpurpose. Under the directions of Ministry of Home Affairs we are bound toreplace them with the new ones,” the ADGP said.
A top CRPF official also termed the MHA order as “routineexercise” to strengthen law and order grid.
Talking to reporters on sidelines of two separate functionsin Srinagar, Inspector General of CRPF (Srinagar sector), Ravideep Singh Sahisaid the arrival of additional companies was a “routine exercise”.
“Induction and de-induction is a continuous process and ithas happened in the past as well. Arrival of additional forces is only forstrengthening the security grid. There is nothing special in it,” he said.
Asked about Kashmir situation Sahi said the overallsituation was “very much under control”, crediting it to the coordinatedefforts among all security agencies.