Home Ministry orders withdrawal of over 7,000 paramilitary personnel from Kashmir

CRPF personnel stand guard outside Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on December 20, 2019.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has ordered the withdrawal of more than 7,000 men of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) from Jammu and Kashmir.

Around 43,000 CAPF men were deployed in Jammu and Kashmir in the run-up to August 5, when the Rajya Sabha passed two Bills to revoke the special status of the erstwhile State and bifurcate it into two Union Territories.

The current force level had surpassed the deployment done in the 1990s. 

 The decision was taken on December 23, a day before Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting in New Delhi with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor Girish Chandra Murmu and Director-General of Police Dilbag Singh. As many as 72 companies (each of around 100 men) of the CAPF were pulled out.

Jammu and Kashmir had been placed under severe restrictions since August 5. Internet services remain snapped in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu. Broadband Internet is available in Jammu, and in the Valley, the government has opened 280 terminals for the public to access Internet.