Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday started the process of removing 16 security bunkers from Srinagar city as part of the Centre's peace initiatives to reach out to the people of the Valley.
A Central Reserve Police Force bunker was removed first in the densely populated Magarmal Bagh locality of Srinagar on Tuesday.
As per the decision of the unified headquarters which met in Srinagar last week under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as a follow-up of the eight point initiative announced by Home Minister P Chidambaram in September, 16 bunkers will be removed from Srinagar.
The CRPF has been assisting the state police in the maintenance of law and order in Srinagar and other towns and its personnel are manning the bunkers dotting the city.
"We have started the process of removal of the bunkers as per the decision taken by the government. So far, we have removed eight bunkers from Srinagar," said CRPF spokesperson Prabhakar Tripathi.
He said that in all, 16 bunkers will be removed from Srinagar and central Kashmir's Budgam district.
"The process will be completed soon," he added.
As part of its initiative to address the unrest in the Kashmir Valley, the Centre had decided to appoint a group of interlocutors to hold a 'sustained dialogue' with various shades of opinion, to release nearly 200 youth detained for stone-pelting and descale the presence of security personnel.
It had also requested the state government to review the deployment of security forces in the Kashmir Valley with particular reference to descaling the number of bunkers, check-points etc in Srinagar and other towns, and to review the notification of areas as 'disturbed areas'.
With inputs from PTI