Srinagar: A day ahead of the start of annual Amarnath Yatra, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Zone Vijay Kumar visited holy cave shrine on Tuesday.
He physically inspected all deployments and gave further instructions for better coordination and joint efforts.
The 43-day-long pilgrimage to the Himalayan shrine is scheduled to start on June 30 from the twin routes – the traditional 48-kilometre Nunwan in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam and the 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal – after a gap of two years due Covid pandemic.
“IGP Kashmir and SSP Anantnag visited Holy Cave and Yatri camp Panjtarni. Held security review meeting with officers from Army, CRPF, BSF, ITBP, JKP, NDRF and civil administration. Later on, IGP physically inspected deployment of forces on the ground and instructed for better coordination and joint efforts to achieve incident free and smooth #Yatra.
@JmuKmrPolice,” Kashmir Zone police Tweeted.
Officials said Kashmir Police chief was briefed by officers on ground about the deployment to meet any eventuality. The IGP appreciated the officers, besides took stock of stay arrangements for personnel at various places.
Besides deployment, IGP Kashmir inspected drone cameras that are being used for better surveillance of the site. Pertinently, the security arrangements for Amarnath yatra are being done after several threats to pilgrimage.
Sufficient number of security personnel have been deployed. Ahead of the pilgrimage, the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) is pulling out all the stops to ensure a smooth pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine housing the naturally formed ice-lingam in south Kashmir Himalayas.
According to sources in the home department, the Centre has deployed 15,000 security personnel for the pilgrimage. Besides that, the government has also deployed around 400 paramilitary companies.
While Army commandos will guard the cave shrine, the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel, along with SDRF and NDRF, will also be stationed at strategic points of the pilgrimage.