Joint security meet to ensure peaceful polls in JK

As Jammu and Kashmir gears up for the second phase of Assembly elections next week, a top army official today chaired a joint security coordination meeting in south Kashmir and assured the election authorities of full assistance to ensure peaceful voting as was witnessed in the first phase.
"A joint security coordination meeting was held at the Khanabal-based headquarters of Sector 1 Rashtriya Rifles to take forward the success of the incident-free first phase of the Assembly elections in Kashmir to the other phases in December," Army said in a statement here.
The Army said the aim of the meeting, chaired by General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lt Gen Subrata Saha, was to share the security related experiences of first phase held in the area of responsibility of Sector 3 and draw out the strategy for the next three phases scheduled on December 2, 9 and 14 in the Valley.

The final and fifth phase involve 20 constituencies of Jammu region on December 20.
Five assembly constituencies of Bandipora and Ganderbal districts of the Valley went to polls along with 11 other constituencies of Jammu and Ladakh regions yesterday. The turnout in the first phase was more than 70 per cent.
Eighteen constituencies including nine in Kupwara and Kulgam districts of the Valley are going to polls in the second phase on December 2.
The army said they are preparing to make arrangements similar to those of the first phase when the security forces adopted outstanding measures like innovative arrangements for delivery of EVMs to the inaccessible areas using All Terrain Vehicles, security of the polling staff, and sanitisation of the polling booth and adjoining areas.

The army was took measures like provisioning of area security including 'near real time' reaction to counter the threats, staggered movement of the polling staff and EVMs post elections and an excellent strategy for keeping the areas under surveillance and intimate vigil through multiple means, thereby beating the designs of the inimical elements.