Centre hopeful of incident-free Amarnath yatra this year

Srinagar, June 16 (UNI) The Centre today expressed hope that the Amarnath pilgrimage this year would be peaceful despite some major high-profile militancy-related incidents in the Kashmir valley in the recent past.

''The Amarnath pilgrimage during the past three years has been incident-free. We are confident and hopeful that this year too the pilgrimage will be peaceful and incident-free,'' Union Home Secretary V K Duggal told a news conference here.

He said the elements inimical to peace would make all efforts to disrupt the pilgrimage.

''But, we are determined to counter effectively any attempt to disrupt the pilgrimage,'' Mr Duggal asserted.

The Union Home Secretary arrived here this afternoon to take stock of the security and other arrangements for the Amarnath pilgrimage.

He was accompanied by the Directors-General of the Border Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force and Military Operations and the Intelligence Bureau Chief.

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