SRINAGAR (Jammu and Kashmir): Amid a rise in militancy related incidents, the Army's planned gradual pullout from some regions of the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir has been postponed 'indefinitely,' officials said. According to the officials, the idea to pull out the Army from the hinterland has been under consideration for some time.
As per an official, the Unified Headquarters (UHQ), which is led by Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, was to make a final recommendation in this regard. Top Army, police, and paramilitary officials are part of the UHQ. In the area south of Pir Panjal (Jammu region) in particular, several Army units had intended to progressively transfer control of security and law and order administration to the local police and paramilitary forces and vacate the region.
"However, taking in mind the (current) situation, particularly the attacks by militants this year, it has been agreed to defer the idea indefinitely," a top official privy to the development told ETV Bharat. Pertinently, on Jan. 1 this year, seven people were killed in Rajouri's Dhangri hamlet in separate militant attacks.
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Five of them died by militant gunfire, and the next day, two children died when an IED that the militants had left behind in one of the victims' houses exploded. On April 20, a vehicle carrying Army troops was torched by militants at Bhatta Durrian in the Mendhar tehsil of the Poonch district, resulting in the death of five soldiers.
In the latest attack, on May 5, militants detonated an IED during an encounter with the security forces in the Kandi forest area of Rajouri, resulting in the death of five para commandos and the injury to a Major-rank officer. The attacks have shelved the phased withdrawal of troops from Jammu region, sources said.
They said that the government intended to transfer security to the Jammu and Kashmir Police and paramilitary forces and lessen the presence of the Rashtriya Rifles, an Army counterinsurgency unit, in the Jammu division. It can be recalled that 4,000 soldiers were pulled out of Kashmir's Pakistan border in 2009.
This followed then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's declaration that the police should be in charge of maintaining Jammu and Kashmir's security. According to the officials, there are three Counter-Insurgent Forces (CIF) of the Indian Army in the Jammu region: Delta Force, which is deployed in the Doda region, Romeo Force, in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, and Uniform Force, which is responsible for security in the Udhampur and Banihal areas.
