news details |
|
|
| Replacing Army by CRPF on Srinagar-Jammu highway may take over a month | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu,January 15 :-Though the union Home Ministry has asked the CRPF authoritis to start taking responsibility of the road opening parties and security of the 300-km long national highway,linking Jammu with Srinagar,from today it may take at least a month for the CRPF to take full control of the assigned task.
Official sources in Jammu said that the state does not have surplus CRPF companies which it could spare for manning the Srinagar-Jammu highway.More than three battalions of the CRPF had been withdrawn from the state last year and it would not be possible for the state Government to spare the remaining CRPF companies for the road opening programme on Srinagar-Jammu highyway.According to these sources,more than 25 companies of the CRPF were required to replace the Army,whose personnel had been carrying out road opening exercise and providing security on the highway for the last over 20 years.
These companies had to be sent from outside the state.It is yet to be known whether the Union Home Ministry will be able to make available additional CRPF companis which could be posted on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.The Home Ministry is said to have accepted the request made by the Defence Minister,A.K.Antony,who decided that hence forth the CRPF would take over the responsibility of the road opening parties and security of the Jammu-Srinagar highway. Antony's decision is the outcome of his commitment to see more troops withdrawn from the state which is one of the demands of the Kashmiri separatists and the PDP.The Defence Minister has stated,during his recent visit to Jammu,that by replacing troops by the CRPF the Government could reduce the visibility of the Army.He had ordered withdrawal of 30,000 troops from the border belt of Poonch and Rajouri during the last two years though the separatists and the PDP described it as "cosmetic"
pullout.They
want the strength of the troops to be reduced in the Kashmir valley.
Meanwhile,official sources confirmed that there was resentment among the senior functionaries of the CRPF over the decision to assign the task of providing security cover on the Srinagar-Jammu highway to the paramilitary forces.These senior functionaries are said to have resented it on the plea that even after the CRPF jawans had performed a very tough task of fighting militants the force personnel were being given a thankless task.But the Governmnt seems to be determined to replace the Army by the CRPF on the Srinagar-Jammu highway and if the experiment succeeded even the responsibility for providing security and carrying out road opening exercise on Srinagar-Leh road could be given to the CRPF.
Indications are that the CRPF may take over security and road opening responsibility on Srinagar-Jammu highway in a phased manner because it may take time for the authorities to move additional companies of the CRPF from other states.Official sources said that the state cannot make available even a single company of CRPF for the Srinagar-Jammu highway because after the withdrawal of the BSF the state needed the support of the paramilitary forces for tackling the activities of militants.One senior police officer said that the security agencies had succeeded in receiving specific informations about the plans and hideouts of militants in different parts of the state.He said that it was the result of this specific information that helped the security agencies in eliminating more than 25 militants,including four self-styled commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-i-Toiba during the last 15 days.This way "we need the support of the troops and the CRPF,"he said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
