The Jammu and Kashmir police, army and central reserve police force have spent close to Rs 800 crore on raising the height of boundary walls of their camps and installations in Jammu and Kashmir in a bid to prevent ‘fidayeen’ and “standoff attacks” by militants, officials said.
A security officer, privy to the development, said in the wake of some major militant attacks on forces, a series of joint as well as separate security reviews were undertaken wherein it was “unanimously agreed to raise the height of boundary walls of all the security establishments.”
“At present, we have completed the exercise but there are certain places where the location of camps didn’t allow us to go for construction of boundary walls. At such places, alternate steps were taken,” the officer, who wished not to be identified as he wasn’t authorised to speak with media, said.
A source in the J&K police headquarters said the police received Rs 500 crore for 2017-2018 under the “police modernisation program” of the union ministry of home affairs.
“At least half of this amount was spent on buying bullet-proof vehicles, shields and other latest surveillance and safety gadgets,” he said. “Rs 250 crore was spent on reconstruction of police stations damaged during the 2014 floods in J&K. During the re-construction works, the boundary walls of almost all police stations were raised up-to 10 feet from their previous height.”
The height of police stations declared “sensitive” and “hypersensitive” was raised further—alongside construction of watchtowers at these police stations—to “thwart entry of suicide attackers,” the source said.
Inspector general of CRPF Ravideep Singh Sahi said that the exercise to strengthen the fences of forces’ camps has been completed across Kashmir.
“Since most of our camps are located in areas where we couldn’t construct the boundary walls, we used multiple layers of concertina wire and other material there as an alternative. The height of walls of our camps is good now,” he said. “When Lethpora attack was carried out, the militants had taken the advantage of an under-construction boundary wall to manage their entry inside.”
A source in the CRPF said during 2017-2018, the union ministry of home affairs approved Rs 300 crore for “upgrading and strengthening security around camps that includes construction of outer fences and watchtowers, procuring barbed wire for fencing and installing high-beam and surveillances lights.”
An army official said during the course of security reviews, the height of boundary walls was fixed up to 10 feet.
“But in sensitive categories, the height of walls was kept 12 feet as seen in the army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps headquarters,” he said, wishing not to be named. “The ministry of defence had sanctioned Rs 400 crore to the northern command for disbursement to various unit formations in Kashmir on the field. So far close to Rs 380 crore has been spent on repair, reconstruction (or fresh construction) of boundary walls of camps.”
The army official said that funds were also utilised for installing high beam lights to keep a night vigil around the camps.
“The basic purpose of raising the height of boundary walls is to prevent entry of militants into the camps and avoid standoff attacks. Once walls are high, militants would find it difficult to carry out standoff attacks,” he said.
Recently, three forces personnel were killed in “sniping attacks” by militants—two in Tral area of Pulwama district and one in Nowgam area of Srinagar.
While the army has received direct funding from the ministry of defence, the police have conducted the exercise with the direct financial assistance from the ministry of home affairs under the “police modernisation program.” The CRPF too have received funds from the MHA.
On January 1 this year, a suicide squad of Jaish-e-Muhammad comprising two militants managed their entry into the highly-fortified CRPF training camp at Lehtpora in Pulwama and killed five forces personnel.
According to top CRPF officials, the Jaish militants had used steel-coated bullets in the attack to inflict maximum casualties on the forces as the bullets have a capacity to pierce through a bullet-proof shield.
In early 2017, a group of three Jaish militants also managed entry into the district police lines Pulwama, killing eight forces personnel—four CRPF men and four policemen.
In September 2016, in an audacious attack by Jaish militants, 18 soldiers were killed in Uri in northern Baramulla district.