The Centre has ordered the withdrawal of 72 companies of Central Armed Police Forces from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, more than four months after it revoked the region’s special status and deployed thousands of personnel in the region. In an order on Monday, the Ministry of Home Affairs asked for the immediate withdrawal of the forces.
“It is to intimate that the matter has further been reviewed in this ministry,” the order read. “It has been decided to withdraw 72 Coys of CAPFs [Central Armed Police Forces] (CRPF-24, BSF-12, CISF-12 & SSB-12 with immediate effect from J&K and revert back to their respective locations.” One such company reportedly has around 100 personnel.
The units, including the Central Reserve Police Force, the Border Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Central Industrial Security Force, and the Sashastra Seema Bal, were sent to Jammu and Kashmir to maintain the law and order situation, the home ministry had earlier said.
The decision was reportedly taken after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level meeting with government officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Indian Army chief Bipin Rawat, and Secretary of Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Bhalla, among others, ANI reported.
The ministry had first started withdrawing forces from Jammu and Kashmir around the second week of this month with about 20 such companies being pulled out of the region, according to PTI.
On July 27, the Centre had decided to deploy 100 additional companies of paramilitary forces in the state. Less than a week later, the government decided to deploy 25,000 more paramilitary personnel to Jammu and Kashmir. Following the revocation of the region’s special status on August 5, more security forces were deployed in the region.
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