2500 BSF men deployed for Amarnath pilgrimage

Srinagar, May 28 (UNI) Unprecedented security arrangements have been put in place all along the Baltal and Pahalgam routes to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath to thwart attempts to disrupt the annual two-month-long pilgrimage, beginning on June 11.

A Border Security Force (BSF) spokesman told UNI that about 2500 men were deployed along the Baltal and Pahalgam routes on May 25.

He said about 22 BSF companies would be in charge of complete security of the routes from Baltal and Pahalgam upwards to the holy shrine.

''We are fully prepared to foil any attempt by militants to create large-scale disturbances during the pilgrimage,'' he added.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) would be responsible for security from Baltal and Pahalgam downwards, the spokesman added.

He said the BSF would withdraw ten days after the pilgrimage, concluding on August 9, the Raksha Bandhan day.

''Till the, the BSF personnel will stay put along both the routes,'' he added.

The security has been further upgraded after a top commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, believed to have planned an attack on Amarnath pilgrims, was killed in a well-planned encounter at at Batakote, Aishmuqam on the Anantnag-Pahalgam road in south Kashmir yesterday.

The militant, identified as Munawar and active in south Kashmir since 1997, was an expert in making and planting Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

Intelligence reports claimed that he was planning to target Amarnath pilgrims during the pilgrimage.

Munawar, initially associated with the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA), was a threat to the pilgrimage, a defence spokesman said.

He said the slain commander was an expert in making, planting and detonating IEDs besides involved in a number of militancy-related incidents in south Kashmir.

UNI AG VD VV1412