Foolproof security arrangements being made for G20 meeting in Kashmir

With Kashmir all set to host the G20 meeting from May 22-25, authorities are making foolproof security arrangements for the high-profile event with special forces and anti-drone technology being brought in from New Delhi.

Sources said top security officials from Jammu and Kashmir had detailed discussions with a central team to make security and other arrangements for G20 delegates in the Valley where the meeting is scheduled to be held.

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“Special forces and anti-drone technology from New Delhi will be deployed in Srinagar and tourist places where G20 delegates will visit. Additional paramilitary forces from within the UT will also be relocated and deployed in Srinagar, Gulmarg and other vulnerable areas to ensure peaceful meeting,” they said.

Delegates from almost all countries of G20, except China, are scheduled to attend the meeting on Working Group of Tourism in Srinagar on May 23, official sources said. The G20 delegates will reach Srinagar on May 22 and the meeting of the group will be held on May 23.

The delegates will be taken to major tourist places for sightseeing on May 24 in Srinagar including Dal Lake where they will go for a Shikara ride, Dachigam Wildlife Sanctuary and some other significant places followed by a visit to north Kashmir’s ski-resort Gulmarg. They will return to New Delhi on May 25, they added.

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The G20, or Group of Twenty, is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s 20 major developed and developing economies, making it the premier forum for international economic cooperation. The first G20 Sherpa meeting under India’s presidency started on December 4, 2022, in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

A senior police officer said venues of the meeting and places where G20 delegates will visit will remain under 24/7 security ahead of the scheduled summit date.

“There are intelligence inputs that militants and their mentors sitting across the border are frustrated due to their inability to strike in the Valley. In such a situation, they could strike at soft targets ahead of the G20 meeting to create news,” he said and added that securing areas inhabited by minorities and non-locals is on the top agenda of the security agencies.

The UT administration is already sprucing up Srinagar city for the major event as it will go a long way in boosting tourism in Kashmir, while at the same time clearing the misgivings about the situation in the Valley.