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Home ministry sanctions three-tier security grid for Jammu

The spurt of militant violence in Jammu and Kashmir has forced the Union home ministry to formulate a three-tier security grid in and around the Jammu region.

Official sources said the new strategy, evolved by Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani, is an attempt "to give a decisive momentum" to the government's fight against militancy in the troubled border state.

Despite repeated promises and action plans announced by the home minister, killings had continued unabated in Jammu and Kashmir.

The new strategy involves setting up 516 operational, defence and border pickets covering all areas of Rajouri, Poonch, Doda and Udhampur districts of the Jammu region.

Currently, the whole of Jammu region has only 240 pickets, which are manned by a mere 900 policemen. The request for more troops is a long-standing demand of the state government, headed by Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah.

Now, sensing that the situation in Jammu is getting out of control, the home ministry has approved sending more forces -- nearly 17,000 from the paramilitary and armed forces 'to man strategic pickets and manage the Jammu region's security better'.

While the operational pickets, to be headed by a police inspector, will have a company of trained personnel including commandos, the defence and border pickets will consist of one platoon each, of trained personnel.

The ministry has also recommended as many as 40 operational pickets, 100 defence pickets and 100 border pickets each for the Rajouri and Poonch districts.

Thirtyfive operational pickets and 185 defence pickets will be established in the Doda district, which has witnessed a spate of massacres in the recent past.

Sources said the government is also considering sanctioning Rs 2.5 billion to modernise the state police force and to arm the village defence committees.

Soon after taking over the reins of the home ministry, Advani had launched what he himself called a "hot pursuit policy" in the troubled border state.

Meanwhile, home ministry officials assert that it was not the failure of the intelligence set-up that resulted in the random killings in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

"Our intelligence agencies had forewarned the minister and other top officials in the government of the renewed strike by the militants. But we do not know why the government failed to take pre-emptive steps against the terrorists," a senior official told Rediff On The NeT.

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