Amit Shah Reviews Amarnath Yatra Security Amid Omar Abdullah’s Criticism
Srinagar: Despite calls for Jammu and Kashmir’s elected government to be taken into confidence on matters of law and order, Union home minister Amit Shah on May 29 chaired a high-level security meeting in Jammu with lieutenant governor (LG) Manoj Sinha.
Shah and Sinha reviewed security and other arrangements for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra which will commence in Kashmir from July 3 under the shadow of the Pahalgam massacre.
Photos shared by Shah on X, formerly Twitter, showed that the chief minister Omar Abdullah was not among those who attended the high-level meeting which included the J&K LG, top officials of the Union home ministry, various security forces and intelligence agencies.
Under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which the Union government used to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories in 2019, law and order is the domain of the LG, who is a nominee of the Union government, while J&K’s elected government has no control on the issue.
However, the terrorist attack in Pahalgam had prompted fresh concerns on the sidelining of the democratically elected government in J&K and calls were issued saying that the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led Union government should take the Abdullah-led government on board on security-related matters.
Shah said that security forces were directed “to maintain the utmost vigilance and ensure the seamless completion of the sacred journey” undertaken by hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims to the Amarnath cave which is located at 3,888 meters or 12,756 feet above sea level in Lidder valley.
“Central govt and J&K administration will leave no stone unturned to facilitate the pilgrims with all necessary facilities,” he said on X in the post on Thursday.
Last month, Abdullah left a high-level meeting chaired by Shah in Srinagar when the issue of security came up for discussion even as J&K chief secretary and director general of police had stayed back and attended the meeting.
In February, Sinha also kept Abdullah out of a security meeting held at the police control room in Srinagar, prompting outrage from the ruling National Conference who have accused the Union government and the Raj Bhawan of undermining the chief minister’s office.
According to political observers, the Pahalgam attack may have also shadowed the Abdullah government’s efforts for the restoration of J&K’s statehood which would effectively hand the charge of Unified Command, J&K’s highest decision-making body on security matters, to the chief minister’s office.
The worst terrorist attack on tourists in J&K on April 22 this year prompted allegations of intelligence failure and abdication of responsibility and accountability by the prime minister Narendra Modi government and J&K administration led by Sinha.
The opposition INDIA bloc is likely to push for a special session of parliament to discuss the attack and subsequent developments, including Operation Sindoor while as the BJP-led Union government has fanned out multi-party delegations to dozens of countries to convey India’s collective resolve in the aftermath of the military conflict with Pakistan.
‘A strange arrangement’
On May 28, Abdullah chaired an extraordinary cabinet meeting in Pahalgam to encourage locals and domestic tourists to visit Kashmir. After the meeting, Abdullah discussed the measures to revive the tourism sector with the industry stakeholders and locals.
During a press interaction, Abdullah took a veiled dig at the Union government over the security situation in J&K. Asked whether his government intended to raise the issue of security in J&K with the Union government, Abdullah pointed to the multiplicity of power centres in J&K.
“We (in J&K) have a strange arrangement. Tourists are my responsibility but the security of tourists is not my responsibility. Here three governments will have to work together – the elected government of J&K, the unelected government of J&K and the government of India,” Abdullah, who is also J&K’s tourism minister, said.
During the meeting in Jammu, Shah, who is visiting the Union territory for the second time after the terrorist attack in Baisaran meadow, was briefed by the security forces and J&K’s civil administration about the measures being put in place to ensure a safe and hassle-free pilgrimage.
According to reports, additional companies of central paramilitary forces are being deployed to secure the twin routes to the holy cave.
The meeting also reportedly discussed the plans for the gradual reopening of tourist destinations in Kashmir which were closed for tourists as a security measure in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack.
A sense of fear spawned by the carnage in Pahalgam followed by the closure of 48 tourist destinations and the four-day conflict between India and Pakistan has caused a massive slump in J&K’s tourism sector which had recorded significant growth over the last three years.
One of the two approach routes to the Amarnath cave which houses an ice stalagmite, believed to be the symbol of the deity Shiva, passes through Pahalgam where four to five terrorists segregated 25 Hindu men and killed them in cold blood in front of their families on April 22 this year.
A local Kashmiri Muslim, who worked as a pony attender, was also shot dead when he tried to stop one of the terrorists from firing at the tourists.
Also Read: Operation Sindoor: India’s Strategic Strike Against Terrorism, Says Rajnath Singh
