Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who could not meet the families of terror victims in Rajouri’s Dangri due to inclement weather, on Friday indicated at further upscaling security apparatus in the union territory. He, however, conspicuously desisted from naming Pakistan or identifying any militant outfit behind the recent attack in Jammu on a Hindu-majority hamlet, which left seven civilians dead.
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“Following the policy of zero tolerance against terrorism under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all security agencies are fighting a decisive battle against terrorism. The Modi government stands firmly with the families of the victims and is determined to help them,” Mr. Shah, who addressed a press conference in Jammu, said.
Mr. Shah’s Jammu and Kashmir visit came in the wake of the killing of seven civilians in the twin attacks by militants on January 1-2 in Rajouri’s Dangri area. He, however, could not meet the terror victim families due to bad weather.
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“I spoke to all the families over the phone and tried to join their grief. The courage of all those victim families is an example for the whole country. It is a big thing to maintain the morale of fighting hard even after such a big incident,” Mr. Shah said.
Reviews security
With Jammu and Kashmir witnessing a spate of attacks on minorities in the past two years, Mr. Shah chaired a high-level security review meeting in Jammu with top security officials.
“All the security agencies are fully prepared and their morale is high with confidence to prevent such incidents,” Mr. Shah said, while directing the National Investigation Agency and the Jammu police to jointly investigate the recent terrorist incidents in Rajouri. “This investigation will be done keeping together all the incidents that happened in the last one and a half years,” he added.
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Mr. Shah, however, did not name Pakistan or any outfit operating from there directly as the forces responsible for the Rajouri attack, in an apparent departure from the past statements made in the wake of such violent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir.
Underlining the need for “a complete 360-degree security mechanism”, Mr. Shah said, “The people responsible for these terrorist attacks will be brought to book at the earliest and will be dealt with severe punishment”.
Mr. Shah maintained that there have been the least number of incidents and deaths in recent times. “There has been a decline in the number of civilians killed and an increase in the number of terrorists killed. If you look at the number of minorities killed, it is the lowest in the past three years,” he asserted.
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Upscaling security in Jammu
The Union Home Minister said that within three months “the security grid in every area of Jammu would be impenetrable by further strengthening it”.
“I assure the citizens of Jammu that whatever may be the intention of the terrorist organisations, our security agencies will be ready to protect Jammu. Another decision taken in the security review meeting was that the security grid of Jammu will be strengthened on all fronts in a time-bound manner,” he said.
He said the security agencies in Jammu were alert and committed to wipe out terror, its ecosystem, over ground workers’ network and zero in on those who were providing logistic support to terrorism.
On reviving the Village Defence Groups (VDGs) after a gap of over two decades, he said, “The decision to strengthen VDGs was taken in August last year. This need not to be linked with the Rajouri incident.”