A high-level security review meeting was on Tuesday organised in Ramban district to safeguard the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway ahead of the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting, to be held in Srinagar from May 22 to 24. Officials from the Army, the police, the CRPF and other security and intelligence agencies discussed the threats and ways to keep the vital highway safe as terrorists had been making attempts to disturb the peace in the Valley before the G20 event.
Mohita Sharma, SSP, Traffic (NH), represented the J&K Police in the meeting and discussed the crucial points on highway where security was to be strengthened.
Intelligence agencies have gathered inputs that terrorists might try to target vehicles of the security forces plying on the highway with sticky IEDs. Soon after the Poonch ambush on April 20 in which five soldiers were killed, the Kashmir police had issued an alert over the threat of vehicle-borne IEDs on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.
Meanwhile, security has also been strengthened at different crucial points, including Vaishno Devi shrine.
A senior police official said, “The terrorists behind the Poonch ambush and the ones in Kandi area of Rajouri, who had an encounter with the Army on May 5, are still out of the hands of the security forces. They might try to disrupt the peace due to which security is being strengthened.”
