NEW DELHI: Security agencies are gearing up for a bloody summer in Kashmir between April 28 and May 8, when the Secretariat will shift from winter capital Jammu to Srinagar in the annual ‘Durbar Move’.
Military intelligence inputs suggest foreign militants hiding around Pampore district on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway will attack convoys escorting government vehicles during the shifting.
The armed response to these attacks could snowball into violent protests in Kupwara, Pulwama, Kulgam and Anantnag. Fearing more stone-pelting, the Army has withdrawn two brigades from peace locations for deployment in Kashmir.
Sources added that the Army has sought more women cops from the CRPF and state police to deal with women stone-pelters and protestors—a relatively new phenomenon. Separatists have called for ‘one more summer’ of unrest in the Valley. The large-scale violence during the recent bypolls and regular incidents of stone-pelting against the forces seem the preview for a bloody summer in Kashmir.