Home Ministry orders withdrawal of 7,000 paramilitary troops from Jammu and Kashmir

As per the order, 24 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force, 12 each of the Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Sashastra Seema Bal are being sent back.

The meeting was chaired by Ajit Doval and attended among others by Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir G C Murmu, Union Home Secretary Ajay K Bhalla, senior security adviser in MHA on the UT K Vijay Kumar among others, PTI reported.

About 20 such companies were withdrawn from the valley early this month when violence erupted in Assam after the Parliament passed the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill.

The development comes four months after the special status of J&K was scrapped and the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.

In the days leading up to August 5, the Valley witnessed the highest deployment of security forces yet. By August 5, nearly 430 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) were deployed in the state, including personnel from the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and CISF.

The normal deployment in the Valley is about 200 CAPF companies in addition to Indian Army and J&K Police. Each company has about 100 personnel. The deployment of almost 230 companies was done in the months leading up to August 2019 to provide security for the panchayat and urban local body elections held in September 2018, followed by preparations for Lok Sabha elections in May 2019 and then the Amarnath Yatra. Post-August 5, the CAPF deployment increased to 653 companies.