JAMMU, (Occupied Kashmir), June 26: Thousands of troops went on alert as President Dr Abdul Kalam began a tour of the Indian- occupied Kashmir, in a rare visit by an Indian head of state to the region since 1989.

Kalam began his three-day tour of the state by addressing the police at a regimental function in Udhampur, 65 kilometres east of Jammu.

Stressing the need for modernising the police force, the Indian president said: “Even without enough facilities, the special operation group has provided key intelligence inputs to the army since 1994.”

Dr Kalam warned against the random use of the Internet to transmit classified information.

“We must develop operational system and software for our own national security because there are chips which have invisible data inside and these can be used for national security matters,” the scientist-turned-president said.—AFP