DH NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, may 29
Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived here on Friday evening amid tight security arrangements on a two-day visit to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and reach out to shelling-hit affected people in Poonch, officials said.
This is Shah’s first visit to the Union Territory post Operation Sindoor, they said.
Shah will during his stay in the Jammu region also visit religious places, meet shelling-hit people and the BSF personnel in the district, which recorded the highest number of 14 civilian deaths among the total 28 lives lost in the indiscriminate Pakistani shelling and drone attacks during the skirmishes between May 7 and 10, officials said.
Soon after his arrival in Jammu, Shah was received by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at the airport and drove straight to the Raj Bhawan.
Shah will chair a high-level security review meeting at the Raj Bhawan late tonight. Besides the lieutenant governor, senior officials of the army, paramilitary forces, police, intelligence agencies and civil administration will be attending the one-and-a-half hours meeting, they said.
Apart from discussion on the security situation and ongoing anti-terrorist operations, he will be reviewing the security and administrative measures concerning the Amarnath Yatra beginning from July 3.
After a night stay in Jammu, Shah will fly to Poonch and interact with shelling-hit families during his visit to Poonch on Friday.
He will also visit damaged religious places, including Singh Sabha Gurdwara and hold a meeting with officers to assess the damage in the worst-hit district, officials said.
The minister will also visit the Border Security Force (BSF) camp in Poonch and interact with the jawans.
He will address the civilians affected by Pakistani shelling at Dak Bungalow in Poonch and the BSF soldiers at their Unit Headquarters at Khanetar.
Shah is likely to distribute appointment letters among the next of kin of civilians killed in the shelling, they said.
This will be the Home minister’s third visit to Jammu and Kashmir since April 6 and first after the Indian armed forces struck terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the early hours of May 7 in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 people, mostly tourists, dead.
