Centre rushes five more CRPF companies to J&K after recent civilian killing

 Mukesh Ranjan
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 9

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Keeping in view the recent spate of targeted civilian killings in Jammu & Kashmir, the Centre has decided to send five additional companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to the Union Territory (UT) and that their deployment should be completed within a week, sources said.

The sources, while confirming the decision, said the deployment of additional companies is part of a continuous process of re-enforcement as 25 companies of CRPF have already been moved to J&K following the killings of civilians in the Kashmir Valley.

They said that the government took the decision to send five more companies after militants shot dead a salesman Ibrahim Khan of Bandipore district at Srinagar on Monday.

More to CRPF deployment, the Centre had also moved 25 companies Border Security Force (BSF) to J&K earlier, the sources said.

Incidentally, the latest mobilisation of additional forces also coincides with Intelligence reports suggesting that the ISI has distributed over 3,000 Afghan SIMs in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and it is suspected these would be used for pushing Afghan mujahideens into Kashmir Valley to stoke violence.

The Afghan SIMs could come in handy to the Pakistan ISI-military complex to deny its inherent role in militant action in J&K, sources said.

The 55 companies (over 55,000 personnel) have been detailed for deployment for security duties and to augment the law order roles of the police, the sources said.

Out of these additional forces, as many as many 30 companies (CRPF- 11 companies and BSF- 19 companies) have been allocated for Srinagar district alone followed by five companies for Anantnag and three companies each for Ganderbal, Pulwama, and Shopian. Two companies each have been allotted for Kulgam, Awantipora, and Baramulla.