Since the terror attack in Pulwama, in which the terrorist rammed a vehicle laden with 300+Kgs of IEDs into one of the vehicles of the CRPF convoy, killing 44 of the security personnel, the CRPF has held numerous meetings with Army, BSF and Jammu and Kashmir police to coordinate their joint movement while causing minimum traffic inconvenience.

The three strands of the Armed Forces-CRPF, Army and BSF have decided to move their convoys in the valley in a common “window of time” during which the civilian traffic will remain suspended. It has also been decided that the Jammu-Srinagar convoy movement, which is currently a one-day trip, will be spread over two days, with multiple stops in between.

With simultaneous movements Armed forces, the capacity of the transit camps which fall on the route, like Qazigund, will be enhanced. As the convoys are usually attacked in the sensitive areas of Pulwama and Pampore around afternoon, the timing of the convoy movement is also being altered.

One of the officers privy to the details said, “ Stopping the traffic for individual movements of separate convoys will bring the Valley to a halt, making us more vulnerable to the terror attacks. Hence, the decision that the three forces will go together in a single window of time, reducing traffic inconvenience as well as vulnerability.”