BJP-regime deploying 670 paramilitary companies for militarized Amarnath yatra in IIOJK
New Delhi: The BJP-led Indian government has approved the deployment of 670 companies of paramilitary forces for so-called security arrangements for the annual Hindu Amarnath Yatra in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
According to Kashmir Media Service, officials from Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said the deployment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) would be the highest-ever for the annual Hindu yatra. The 57-day yatra is scheduled to commence on July 3 and conclude on August 28 in the occupied territory.
It is pertinent to mention that India, in its bid to maintain its illegal occupation of Kashmir, has already deployed over one million troops in the territory, turning it into the world’s most militarized zone.
Indian officials said additional paramilitary forces are expected to start arriving in IIOJK in the first week of June, while the deployment process is likely to be completed by June 25. The CAPF personnel will be deployed along the entire yatra route, stretching from Lakhanpur to the Amarnath cave in south Kashmir Himalayas. The deployment will cover the Baltal and Pahalgam routes, Baltal and Nunwan base camps, Yatri Niwas Jammu, Srinagar-Jammu Highway and other key transit points. Areas including Udhampur, Katra, Reasi, Banihal and Qazigund will remain under heightened surveillance and strict security vigil during the yatra, officials added.
They further said that more than 3.5 lakh Hindu pilgrims have so far registered for this year’s yatra since the registration process began on April 15.
Political analysts and environmental experts have expressed serious concern over the BJP-led Indian government’s policy of turning the Amarnath Yatra into a heavily militarized annual exercise in the environmentally fragile occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They warned that the influx of hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims, coupled with massive military deployment, poses severe threats to Kashmir’s delicate ecosystem, glaciers and water resources.
Experts noted that the unchecked expansion of the yatra has contributed to environmental degradation in the Himalyan region, including glacier melting, deforestation and increased risk of floods. They said that the Modi regime is ignoring the ecological sensitivity of IIOJK and is using the militarized pilgrimage as a tool to tighten its control over the occupied territory and further suppress the Kashmiris.
