Responding to apprehensions of a possible terror strike on the BJP’s controversial Rashtriya Ekta Yatra which is headed to hoisting the national flag at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk despite vehement opposition from both J&K’s Omar Abdullah government and Kashmiri separatists, the Punjab police has deployed huge security arrangements to protect the saffron marchers before they cross the Punjab-Jammu Border at Lakhanpur on Tuesday.
The entire Punjab Police Border Range across Gurdaspur district has been put on maximum alert to discourage any infiltration attempts by terrorist elements. Senior police officials, including the deputy inspector general, senior superintendent of police and the deputy commissioner, have stationed themselves in the cantonment town of Pathankot, where the BJP marchers are spending the night before proceeding to Lakhanpur on Tuesday. Punjab BJP functionary Vineet Joshi, who is accompanying the yatris said the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha chief Anurag Thakur plans to address a public rally in Pathankot before proceeding to Srinagar.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer told this newspaper that the police bandobast on the Punjab side of the border “is in no manner meant to discourage the Ekta Yatra...”