NEW DELHI, May 17: The planned phased withdrawal of the Army from certain areas of the Jammu region has been shelved “indefinitely” in view of terror attacks from across the border, officials said.
They said the government had planned to reduce the footprints of Rashtriya Rifles, a counter-insurgency force of the Army, in the Jammu region and hand over the security to the Jammu and Kashmir Police and paramilitary forces.
The Army has three Counter-Insurgent Forces (CIF) in the Jammu region — Delta Force (which looks after the Doda region), Romeo Force (looking after Rajouri and Poonch areas) and Uniform Force (looking after Udhampur and Banihal areas).
Some units of the Army had planned to gradually hand over the security and law and order management to the local police and paramilitary units in South of Pir Panjal (Jammu region), the officials said. However, keeping the situation in mind, especially the killings by terrorists this year, it has been decided to shelve the proposal “indefinitely”, the officials said.
Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi on Wednesday visited forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, and exhorted the troops to be fully prepared to meet all contingencies, officials said.
The visit assumes significance in view of the G20 meeting scheduled in Srinagar from May 22-24. He visited two units along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rashtriya Rifles in Rajouri sectors to review operational preparedness, and was briefed on the counter-infiltration grid and processes being adopted, the officials said.
He appreciated the measures adopted and lauded the troops for maintaining the highest standards of professionalism. He further exhorted them to be fully prepared to meet all contingencies, the officials said.
This is the fourth visit of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GoC-in-C) to the Rajouri-Poonch sector since the April 20 terror attack on an army vehicle that killed five personnel. He earlier visited the sector on April 22, April 26 and May 6.
The areas in the Jammu region have seen 17 killings by terrorists, including that of 10 Army personnel. The proposal to withdraw the Army from the hinterland was under discussion for some time and a final recommendation was to be taken at the Unified Headquarters (UHQ) headed by Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha. The UHQ has top representatives from the Army, police and paramilitary forces.
Post abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the law and order and terror-related incidents had shown a decline with the number of stone pelting incidents reduced to zero.
(Manas Dasgupta)
