Planned Army withdrawal from J&K shelved ‘indefinitely’

Srinagar, May 17 (PTI) The planned phased withdrawal of the Army from certain areas of the Jammu region has been shelved “indefinitely” in view of terror attacks being orchestrated from across the border, officials said here.

They said the government had planned to reduce the footprints of Rashtriya Rifles, a counter-insurgency force of the Army, in the Jammu region and hand over the security to the Jammu and Kashmir Police and paramilitary forces.

The Army has three Counter-Insurgent Forces (CIF) in the Jammu region — Delta Force (which looks after the Doda region), Romeo Force (looking after Rajouri and Poonch areas) and Uniform Force (looking after Udhampur and Banihal areas).

Some units of the Army had planned to gradually hand over the security and law and order management to the local police and paramilitary units in South of Pir Panjal (Jammu region), the officials said.

However, keeping the situation in mind, especially the killings by terrorists this year, it has been decided to shelve the proposal “indefinitely”, the officials said.

The areas in the Jammu region have seen 17 killings by terrorists, including that of 10 Army personnel.