Top cop reviews election preparedness, security scenario in J&K’s Shopian

Srinagar: Deputy Inspector General, South Kashmir Range (DIG-SKR) Javid Iqbal Matoo on Saturday visited J&K’s Shopian district where he chaired a comprehensive meeting with senior officers of Shopian Police and CAPF, an official said.

During the meeting, Shopian Senior Superintendent of Police, Anayat Ali Choudhary, submitted a detailed presentation regarding the security scenario and proactive measures including enforcement of model code of conduct, security plan, security of contesting candidates/strong rooms, transport and communication plan and the functioning of Flying Squad Teams and Static Surveillance Teams taken by the police with other security agencies to address challenges at the grassroots level for conducting the Assembly elections peacefully.

“The meeting focused on devising strategic measures to enhance security, combat the threat of OGWs as well as ANEs to ensure the peaceful conduct of forthcoming assembly election,” a police statement said.

The officials were urged to ensure a successful and incident-free conduct of elections.

They were directed to be more alert and vigilant in strengthening the security grid and to plug the gaps with strict security measures.

Elections for the 90-member Assembly of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases — on September 18, September 25, and October 1. The ballots will be counted on October 8.

This will be the first Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir since 2014, and also the first after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

Major political parties in the electoral fray are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference.

The BJP was in an alliance with the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP from 2015 till 2018 before the end of the tie-up following which Governor’s Rule was imposed in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Congress has already stitched an alliance with the National Conference for the upcoming elections in the union territory.