CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar said, “We have decided to add new features to our convoy movement to and from Kashmir,” in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.
“Apart from traffic control, there will be changes in the timings of convoy, their halt locations and movement in coordination with other security forces like the Army and the J-K police,” Bhatnagar added.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh also said that no movement of civilian vehicles will be allowed when convoys of security forces move in Jammu and Kashmir.
The DG said that in last two days he and his commanders have “discussed and laid down a new strategy” to not only secure the movement of convoys but also to increase security measures for regular operations.
Bhatnagar said, “I would not like to go into the specifics but we are formulating some strategies. This is something that we have done in the past and these things are dynamic. “In view of this new threat, where a suicide bomber is suspected to have come close to our vehicle and detonated explosives, strategies are being worked upon.”
When DG was asked about sending all troops on aircraft from Jammu to Srinagar to avoid the vulnerability of road movement, he replied that there is “no alternative” to convoys.
In the last two years there was no ambush on any CRPF convoy, it is the lead counter-terrorism force in the state and has deployed about 65,000 troops as part of 61 battalions there and the effort is to neutralise such threats as much as possible, said by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) chief.
The home ministry has sanctioned the proposal for introducing Delhi-Srinagar-Delhi flight and a separate Jammu-Srinagar-Jammu flight and would soon be operational, the DG said.