Leave immediately, advisory tells Amarnath Yatris

Srinagar, Aug 02: Amarnath Yatris have been advised to curtail their stay in Jammu and Kashmir and take necessary measures to return as soon as possible, an advisory by the Home Department says.

The security advisory says, " keeping in view the latest intelligence inputs of terror threats, with specific targeting of the Amarnath Yatra and given the prevailing security situation in the Kashmir Valley and in the interest of the safety and security of the tourists of the Amarnath Yatris, it is advised that they may curtail their stay in the Valley immediately and take necessary measures to return as soon as possible."

Earlier the Indian security establishment said that there is an immense threat from outfits such as the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Jammu and Kashmir.

The ADG of the CRPF, Zulfiquar Hasan said that the number of pilgrims for the Amarnath Yatra had increased. He said that there had been several attempts to disrupt the yatra, but due to the efforts of the security personnel the same had been thwarted.

The IGP of Kashmir, S P Pani said that this year nearly 10 attempts had been made to carry out IED strikes in different parta of the Valley. However several modules had been busted and many terrorists had been arrested.

Chinar Corps Commander Lt. Gen K J S Dhillon said that an M-24 American made sniper rifle had beem recovered along the Amarnath Yatra route. This was part of the terror cache he said.

The DGP of Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbag Singh said that the number od terrorists in the Valley had come down. On being asked about the increase in troop deployment, he said that they had been into various activities. Our troops have not been able to rest for a while.

We are getting inputs that violence levels are likely to increase and hence we had to strengthen the grid on the ground. We have also been told that troops must get time to rest. This is a time for turnover, but the grid will be in as much active form as possible, Singh also said.