In Jammu and Kashmir, the administration will be mobilizing a large number of companies of police from different battalions for the smooth conduct of Parliamentary elections in the UT being held in five phases beginning April 19 in addition to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) being deputed by the MHA.
Akashvani’s Correspondent reports that additional CAPFs will be deployed in the entire Kashmir valley and twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region for sanitization operations and strengthening Anti-Militancy Grid to ensure that the militants don’t manage to carry out any strikes to vitiate the political atmosphere in the UT before or during the Lok Sabha elections. J&K Police will also mobilize its reserved battalions of JKAP and IRP for election duties excepting those which are posted on security-related duties for anti-militancy operations. The Election Commission of India has already approved 635 companies of paramilitary forces in J&K for the smooth conduct of polls. Of which, 36 will be retained for EVMs/Strong Rooms guarding and counting centre arrangements. The entire Kashmir valley will get top priority as far as security is concerned.
However, equally important are the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch whose most of the Assembly constituencies fall in the Anantnag-Poonch-Rajouri Parliamentary seat. The additional CAPFs will start reaching J&K by the end of this month for advanced deployment in vulnerable areas. Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency will go to polls in the first phase on April 19, the Jammu-Reasi seat will have voting in the second phase on April 26, Anantnag-Poonch-Rajouri in the third phase on May 7, Srinagar in fourth phase on May 13 and Baramulla in fifth phase on May 20. The timing between the election phases is enough to rotate the paramilitary forces from one constituency to another.
