Largest-ever security coverfor Amarnath Yatra this time

Vehicles tagged with electromagnetic chips, bike and bullet-proof SUV police convoys and scores of bullet-proof bunkers have been deployed as part of the "biggest-ever" security blanket thrown to secure pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath Yatra that begins in Jammu and Kashmir from tomorrow.

Over two lakh pilgrims have registered for the annual pilgrimage to the3,880 metre high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas till now.

A posse of over 40,000 armed CRPF and state police personnel have virtually dotted the yatra routes from Jammu-- via Pahalgam and Baltal-- with their overwhelming presence in armoured vehicles.

Forces have deployed a huge assortment of CCTV cameras and drones, assisted by mounted Army columns, to ensure that the yatra route is not breached by terrorists and in case of a possible attack reinforcements reach as fast as possible.

"Each vehicle that has pilgrims and is part of the yatra is being tagged using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and they will be monitored at a control room made operational here.

"Security forces have been given specific responsibility to sanitise routes and secure a select number of pilgrim vehicles by sandwiching them between bullet proof troop carriers," a senior security official told PTI here.

The CRPF road clearing parties will keep sweeping yatra roads against possible improvised explosive device (IEDs) threats to yatra convoys from early morning till late evening, he said.

The top official added that these arrangements are the "biggest-ever deployment of the security paraphernalia to ensure protection to the annual yatra that comes in the backdrop of a long and turbulent time of violence in the Kashmir Valley."
S K Todkar, a devotee from Maharashtra who arrived in the state yesterday, said he and his 10 other family members are "undettered by the fact that a pilgrims' bus was attacked last year."