No additional movement of troops to Kashmir: Govt after reports of more boots in Valley

According to a report, more than 28,000 security force personnel are being sent to the Kashmir Valley.

The Union ministry of home affairs on Friday denied reports that additional paramilitary troops were being deployed in Jammu and Kashmir after it sent 10,000 personnel to the restive state last month.

The Union ministry of home affairs on Friday denied reports that additional paramilitary troops were being deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. (Waseem Andrabi/HT file)

According to a report, more than 28,000 security force personnel are being sent to the Kashmir Valley. News agency Press Trust of India said the troops, mostly CRPF personnel, are being deployed in vulnerable spots in the city and other parts of the valley, citing unnamed officials.

The Centre had earlier ordered the deployment of about 10,000 central forces personnel to Kashmir to strengthen the counter-insurgency operations and law and order duties.

“A hundred companies had been ordered for deployment about a week ago, which are in the process of reaching their destinations. This has apparently led to speculations of induction of additional forces,” an official in the home ministry, who did not want to be named, said.

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The official also said “troops are rotated” according to “assessment of internal security situation and training requirements” for paramilitary forces.

“Induction and de-induction of central forces is a continuous and dynamic process. It has never been the practice to discuss in public domain the details of deployment and movement of paramilitary forces deployed in a particular theatre,” the official said.

Nearly 85,000 troops of the paramilitary - the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) - are deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. The counter-infiltration and counter-terror security grid has already been strengthened because of the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.

Movement of troops and orders by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), which became public, had also to led to speculation that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government may be moving to repeal Article 35A, a provision in the Constitution of India that gives special status to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir.