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Army reviews Amarnath security

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 6/21/2013 11:49:29 PM

JAMMU, June 21: Amid intelligence inputs of terror threat to Amarnath Yatra, Army today reviewed security measures for the smooth conduct of the annual pilgrimage to the 3,880 meter high cave shrine, scheduled to start on June 28.
"A security conference was organised today by Counter Insurgency Force (Delta) to co-ordinate security issues with various agencies involved in providing security and other administrative arrangements for smooth conduct of the Amarnath Yatra," a defence spokesman said here.
The conference was chaired by Officiating General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Counter Insurgency Force (Delta), Brigadier H S Faujdar.
Brigadier Faujdar assured the civil administration of all Army support for the smooth conduct of Amarnath Yatra, the spokesman said.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Ramban, representatives of Jammu Kashmir Police and CRPF, apart from other officers of the Army were also present on the occasion.
"The important issues discussed during the conference were deployment of additional resources by the Civil Administration in terms of temporary accommodation, health facilities, recovery elements in case of accidents, langars and toilet facilities," the spokesman said.
"Issues related to traffic management including placement of heavy recovery vehicles, additional Police Check Posts, catering for jams at Choke Points, treatment of casualties and their evacuation to nearest hospitals, security arrangements by the Army, CRPF and Police, deployment of additional manpower, if any, and reaction of the security forces in case of contingency were also discussed," he said.
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt General K T Parnaik has said the Army has received inputs that terrorists might try to disrupt the Yatra. "Intelligence inputs which we are receiving suggest that they (terrorists) have intentions to disrupt the yatra," he had said on Monday.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, however, said there was no increased threat perception to this year's Amarnath Yatra compared to previous years and fears of attack as reported in the media were "gross exaggeration".
"While we will take all the regular precautions with a multi layer security grid, 'yatra attack feared' headlines are a gross exaggeration," Omar wrote yesterday on the microblogging site twitter.com.