Srinagar/Chandigarh: People living within 10 km of the border with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab have been asked to shift to safer places and schools ordered to be shut till further notice in the wake of surgical strike carried out by the Indian Army across the Line of Control.
The ‘Beating Retreat’ ceremony at Attari-Wagah border in Amritsar in Punjab was also been closed for public for Thursday, officials said. “We have asked border villagers living along IB and LoC to shift to safer area as a precautionary measure,” said Simra-ndeep Singh, deputy commissioner, Jammu.
All people living within 7 to 8 km of India-Pak border have been asked to move to safer areas and schools in 10 km area to be ordered to close down till further notice, he said.
The twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu are calm. So are other cities and towns across Jammu and Kashmir. Though there is not much military activity visible on the ground, the news about Indian Army’s conducting surgical strikes has triggered anxiety and paved the way to edginess and tension in various areas falling in close proximity of the de facto border.
The situation is tense more in villages along the stretch of the IB in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts than in those falling close to the 740-km long LoC in Rajouri-Poonch-Bara-mulla-Kupwara-Band-ipore-Kargil districts.
Many people of Arnia, Suchetgarh, Ranbir Singh Pura, Kanachak, Pargwal and Nagri Parole sub-sectors along the IB have started moving to safer places as they are not willing to take any risks, reports said. “Some families have done that on their own. More may follow but there are no orders from us or the Army,” said a police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
India braces for Pakistan retaliation
The country was on Thursday put on high alert in wake of Intelligence inputs that terrorists may strike in retaliation to the Army’s surgical strike on terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan. Union home minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the Chief Ministers of bordering states of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
In Punjab, Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal put the entire government machinery on an emergency mode. He directed the chief secretary and director general of police to ask the deputy commissioners and senior superindents of police to oversee the entire evacuation process in the border districts of Ferozepur, Fazilka, Amritsar, Taran Tarn, Gurdaspur and Pathnkot.
He also directed the Deputy Commissioners to identify suitable locations for setting up camps and ensure that none of the residents being evacuated were put to any sort of inconvenience or hardship.
Elsewhere in the country, security apparatus was beefed up in railway stations, metros, bus depots, airports, seaports, hospitals and places having high footfall like malls, multiplexes, shopping plazas and busy marketplaces.
