PM Reviews Jammu and Kashmir Security, Directs Full-Scale Counter-Terror Response

NEW DELHI: Following back-to-back terror attacks in the last four days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in a high-level meeting. He asked the officials to deploy the "full spectrum of counter-terror capabilities."

According to sources, national security adviser Ajit Doval and other senior officials attended the meeting, where the Prime Minister was given a full overview of the security-related situation in the region and was apprised of the counter-terror efforts being undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir.

Modi also spoke to Union home minister Amit Shah and discussed the deployment of security forces and counter-terror operations, government sources said.

“Modi spoke to Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant-governor Manoj Sinha as well and took stock of the situation in Union territory. Sinha briefed him on the efforts being undertaken by the local administration,” the sources further said.

Meanwhile, the security forces have detained 50 people in connection with the probe into the recent terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, the UT police said on Thursday.

The sources in the security setup also said that to hunt down the terrorists, the security forces have launched a massive search operation that has been expanded to the Reasi district's far-flung Arnas and Mahore regions to track down and neutralise the attackers at the earliest.

The Arnas and Mahore areas in Reasi district were once terrorist hotbeds between 1995 and 2005, which were sanitised after successive operations in the past.

In the last four days, the terrorists struck at four places in Reasi, Kathua and Doda districts of Jammu and Kashmir, killing nine pilgrims and a CRPF jawan and leaving seven security personnel and several others injured.

So far, two suspected Pakistani terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kathua and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from them.

The first terror strike was made on Sunday when they opened fire at a passenger bus carrying pilgrims en route to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra from the Shiv Khori temple. The bus ferrying pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi fell into a deep gorge following gunfire, killing nine people and injuring 41 others.

On Tuesday, terrorists fired at a joint checkpost of the 4 Rashtriya Rifles and police at Chattergalla in Bhaderwah, while a search party in the Gandoh area of the district was attacked on Wednesday, resulting in injuries to seven security personnel, including a policeman.