The Centre has decided to withdraw 100 companies (around 10,000 personnel) of central paramilitary forces from Jammu and Kashmir after a security review, officials familiar with the development said. They said the decision was taken as a large number of troops were deployed in the valley for more than one and a half years now who needed to be rested. Significantly, the security situation in the valley has improved and terrorists are on the back foot, the officers said.
On Wednesday last, 40 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and 20 each of the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) were withdrawn by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and were asked to report back to their respective locations.
The security grid in J-K was strengthened with an additional 600 odd companies (around 60,000 troops) rushed there just ahead of the government’s decision to withdraw the special status of J-K and bifurcate it into two union territories on August 5, 2019.
These troops were stationed at various locations from where terrorist incidents, stone pelting incidents were reported. According to the latest government data, stone pelting incidents have drastically reduced this year as compared to 2019 or 2018. In 2018, there were 532 incidents of stone pelting in Kashmir, 389 in 2019 but only 102 such incidents were reported this year so far.
Senior officers deployed in the valley have claimed that the locals don’t disrupt the counter-terror operations anymore and there is more support from the public in general. With the latest decision, around 400 additional companies of paramilitary forces are still deployed in J-K in additional to CRPF’s regular 67 battalions (around 67,000 personnel) and army and the J-K police.
