Joint conference reviews security arrangements for Amarnath Yatra in Jammu

A joint conference of senior Army, police and civil officers on Wednesday here reviewed the security arrangements for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra, a defence spokesman said.

The Tiger Division of the Army conducted the joint security coordinating conference, which was co-chaired by General Officer Commanding, Rising Star Corps, Lt Gen Pushpendra Singh and Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Kumar, to coordinate operational preparedness of security forces in Jammu and Samba districts, he said.

The 43-day-long yatra to the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine of Amarnath is scheduled to start on June 30 from the twin routes -- traditional 48-km Nunwan in south Kashmir's Pahalgam and 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir's Ganderbal.

"Threat perception and security arrangements for the yatra were discussed during the high-level meeting," the spokesman said.

He said the conference was attended by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar, deputy commissioners of Jammu and Samba, along with Inspector General-level officers from BSF, CRPF, deputy director from State Intelligence Bureau, formation commanders and brigade commanders of Jammu and Samba.

Officials said police and CRPF personnel have started taking positions in and around Yatri Niwas, the main camp for the pilgrims at Bhagwati Nagar here.

They said CRPF personnel and police will jointly guard the camp to ensure the safety of the pilgrims during the pilgrimage.

The first batch of the pilgrims will leave for the twin base camps of Nunwan-Pahalgam and Baltal one day ahead of the start of the pilgrimage, marking the beginning of the yatra from Jammu.

Sadhus have also started arriving from different parts of the country at the historic Ram temple in the old city for the pilgrimage.

"The holy pilgrimage is taking place after a gap of two years due to COVID-19 outbreak and we are here to join the yatra," a sadhu said, expressing satisfaction over the arrangements at the temple having a capacity to accommodate over 4,000 sadhus.

The sadhus said they are looking forward to a peaceful pilgrimage.

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