JOIN USAmit Shah arrives in Srinagar on 3-day visit, security issues on agenda
Amid a sudden spike in targeted civilian killings, Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Srinagar on Saturday. He is scheduled to hold a security review meeting apart from visiting some trouble-torn districts in the Valley.
Shah, who arrived this morning on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, was received at the Srinagar airport by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha where other senior officials of the Jammu and Kashmir administration were also present, officials said.
He is accompanied by the Union Home Secretary A K Bhalla and heads of most of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and the intelligence agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau, they said.
During his three-day visit, the home minister is scheduled to chair a high-level security review meeting and also flag off the inaugural Srinagar-Sharjah flight. “He is scheduled to chair a meeting of the Unified Headquarters in the Valley on Saturday where a strategy is likely to be drafted to tackle sudden spurt in civilian killings and finish militancy in the region,” a top official said.
“The security review of Jammu, especially Pir Panjal region where an anti-insurgency operation is going on near the boundary of Poonch-Rajouri districts for over a week, will also be discussed,” he said.
This is the home minister’s first visit to J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019. Shah’s last visit to J&K had come more than a month before the abrogation of Article 370 on June 26, 2019. He is also scheduled to lay the foundation stones of two new government medical colleges (GMCs) for Udhampur and Handwara and address a mega public rally in Jammu city during his stay in the UT.
Shah is scheduled to visit Jammu on Sunday before returning to the Valley the same evening. He will fly back to New Delhi on the evening of October 25 from Srinagar.
Pertinently, several Union ministers that included Nitin Gadkari, Narendra Singh Tomar, G Kishan Reddy, and John Barla travelled to the UT as part of the ‘public outreach programme’ of the Centre.
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