Jammu Union Home Minister Amit Shah, currently on a three-day tour of Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday, visited a forward post of BSF along the India-Pakistan border in Kathua district, where a massive operation against Pakistani terrorists is underway for the past fortnight, officials said.
Shah flew in a helicopter to the Hiranagar sector of Kathua from Jammu around noon and was later escorted to Border Security Force (BSF) Outpost ‘Vinay’ to assess the ground situation, they said.
BSF Director General Daljit Singh Chaudhary, J-K Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat and other senior officers, including Inspector General of BSF, Jammu Frontier, Shashank Anand, and Inspector General of Police, Jammu zone, Bhim Sen Tuti received the home minister, the officials said.
Shah reached Jammu Sunday evening and held a closed-door meeting with BJP MLAs and office-bearers.
After a nearly two-hour meeting at BJP headquarters here, Shah took to X and shared that he held a meeting with BJP MLAs and senior members of the party.
“Under the leadership of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji, BJP will continue to work for the prosperity of Jammu and Kashmir,” he wrote on X late Sunday night.
Police and security forces have been put on high alert because of Shah’s visit, the officials said.
Senior officers are expected to brief the home minister about the ground situation along the border.
A massive search operation has been underway in the forest area of Kathua district since March 23 when police and other security forces intercepted a group of five terrorists who had infiltrated from across the International Border in the Hiranagar sector.
Four policemen and two terrorists were killed in a fierce gunfight in the district on March 27.
Shah is also scheduled to meet the family members of the Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel killed in the line of duty at the Raj Bhavan in Jammu upon his return from Kathua and present appointment letters to some of them selected on compassionate grounds.
This is Shah’s first visit to the Union Territory after the formation of the National Conference government in October last year.
On Tuesday, Shah will take stock of various development programmes in the UT at a meeting at the Raj Bhavan in Srinagar.
Later, he will attend another meeting at the Raj Bhavan where the security situation in J&K will be reviewed, the officials said.
