Jammu, Mar 09 (KNO): Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan chaired an important security review meeting with top officers of central armed forces, Jammu and Kashmir Police and other security agencies here on Sunday.
The Union Home Secretary, according to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), accompanied by top officials of the Home Department arrived in Jammu this morning. Top brass of police, paramilitary forces, central forces and officials of intelligence agencies briefed the Union Home Secretary about the prevailing situation in J&K.
Today’s meeting was Govind Mohan’s second security review meeting in Jammu and Kashmir as the Union Home Secretary. He had chaired his first meeting in Srinagar in December last year.
Sources said that in today’s meeting deliberations were held on three points which included forthcoming Amarnath Yatra, which is scheduled to commence in July this year, safety of Kashmir to Kanayakumari rail services, likely to begin anytime soon and prevailing security situation in Jammu region.
Sources said that security review meeting was already scheduled but it was held a day after security forces recovered bodies of three missing civilians from a water channel in the upper reaches of Bani-Billiwar in Kathua District.
Slain civilians, including a child were from a marriage party. They went missing and remained untraced for more than 60 hours. The victims Yogesh (32), Darshan (40) and Varun (14), are believed to be cousins.
Sources told KNO that the Union Home Secretary chaired two separate meetings.
“Top brass of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials dealing with J&K, including J&K Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, state Home Secretary Chandrakar Bharti, DGP Nalin Prabhat, Additional DG CID, Nitish Kumar, IGP Jammu, Bhim Sen Tuti, IGP Kashmir, V.K. Birdi and senior officers of BSF, CRPF and intelligence agencies attended the first meeting,” sources said.
They added that Superintendents of Police of all the 20 districts of J&K attended another meeting chaired by Mohan.
One of the points which came up for discussion during the meetings, according to the sources, included: “The Government of India (GOI) is concerned about the presence of terrorists in the higher reaches of the Jammu division, who should have been neutralised during the winter months due to climatic conditions but are reported to be still active in those areas.”
Another point which was discussed, sources said, was that “most of terrorists in the upper reaches are believed to be foreigners and their survival in extreme winter is not possible without some local support.”
The officials, according to the sources, were told that “the MHA is concerned about the reports of terrorists’ presence in the upper reaches of Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar, Reasi, Rajouri and Poonch districts. They need to be neutralized.”
Moreover, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, according to the KNO, confirmed terrorist involvement in the killings. In a post on X, the Union Minister in Hindi (loosely translated as) : “The brutal killing of 3 youths by terrorists in Bani area of district Kathua is extremely sad as well as a matter of concern. There seems to be a deep conspiracy behind spoiling the atmosphere in this peaceful area”.
“We have discussed this matter with the concerned officials. The Union Home Secretary himself is reaching Jammu so that the situation can be reviewed on the spot. I am confident that such incidents do not happen again and people's confidence remains strong,” Dr Singh wrote.
It may be recalled that Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the J&K security thrice in February month, while Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha also chaired two back-to-back security review meetings, one in Srinagar and the other in Jammu last month—(KNO)