J&K security grid to be bolstered in 3 months, says Amit Shah

Addressing a press conference during a visit to Jammu, Shah announced that the January 1 and 2 strikes will be probed jointly by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and J&K Police.

Jammu: The security grid in Jammu and Kashmir will be made impregnable within the next three months, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Friday, as he asserted the government would bring to justice the perpetrators of a two back-to-back attacks in the Rajouri region last week which left seven people dead.

Union home minister Amit Shah addresses a joint press conference with Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha, in Jammu on Friday. (ANI)

Addressing a press conference during a visit to Jammu, Shah announced that the January 1 and 2 strikes will be probed jointly by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and J&K Police. He also spoke to the kin of the victims of the terror attacks over phone after poor weather prevented him from visiting the region.

“It has been decided to further strengthen the security grid within the next three months. I assure the people of Jammu & Kashmir that whatever be the intentions of the terrorist groups our agencies will secure Jammu with all alertness,” he said.

“360-degree security circle will be further strengthened to completely eliminate the support system of terrorists and their information system,” he added after a high-level meeting with lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha and all security agencies.

Seven people, all Hindus, were killed and 14 others injured in the twin strikes at Dhangri outside Rajouri town. Among the dead were a four-year-old child and a 16-year-old girl. The two back-to-back terror attacks on January 1 and 2 were carried out by two armed terrorists, suspected to be of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

At around 7pm on January 1, the terrorists had opened firing at four houses in Dhangri. They had planted timer fitted IED at the first house before targeting other houses. The IED, in a major lapse on the part of security forces remained unnoticed, went off the next morning on January 2 at around 9.40am, killing the two children, besides wounding nine others.

This was the latest in a string of targeted killing of civilians – many of them non-locals – that has rocked the region in the last year-and-a-half.

Shah said the people who perpetrated the attacks will be brought to justice and made to face the court of law. “NIA and Jammu police will investigate jointly. The investigation will proceed keeping in mind all the incidents of terror attacks that took place in the last one-and-a-half years.”

Shah also chaired a high- level security review meeting which was attended by J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha and other top officials of the home ministry and security forces.

The minister said he held a discussion with all security agencies, “All the agencies that are responsible for the security of Jammu and Kashmir were present in discussion. The security of the Jammu region was discussed in detail,” he said. “I can assure that the security agencies be it the Jammu & Kashmir Police or the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, the SIA team of the Jammu police or the Indian Army —all the agencies are 100% alert and are determined to prevent such incidents in the times to come.”

Shah said that due to adverse weather conditions, he could not reach Rajouri but added that he spoke to the aggrieved families over the phone. “ I talked to every member of all the seven families and tried to share their pains over the phone as I could not arrive to them due to bad weather. I listened to them attentively. LG Manoj Sinha was also present with me,” he said.

The minister added that everyone he spoke to showed exemplary courage. “All of them said that the land belonged to them and they will not leave it. Some families also were from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. But expressing the resilience to fight the situation even after facing such a grave tragedy means a lot,” he said.

He assured the people of the Union territory that irrespective of the designs of terror outfits, security agencies will ensure a foolproof security grid and protect civilians. For victims of targeted killings and their families, he said the government was sensitive to them, whether they lived in Kashmir, Rajouri, Poonch or Jammu.

“The government is with them and we have various schemes for them and then the LG has powers to relax norms to help such victims. There is no compromise,” he said.

Shah said that the government had made adequate security arrangements. “Following the revocation of Article 370, violence level in the past three years has reduced. While the killing of terrorists has gone up, the deaths of civilians have come down considerably,” he added.

Former People’s Democratic Party (PDP) legislator and close confidante of party chief Mehbooba Mufti, Firdous Tak, said, “The home minister has failed just short of admitting failures of his government to handle situation in Jammu and Kashmir. His assertion of establishing new security grid simply means the existing system has not yielded results. It’s better if BJP stops its campaign of lies and instead accept it’s failure. And, also that it’s experiments in J&K have failed and have only worsened the situation.”