MUZAFFARABAD: Under a re-evaluated security plan, all nine concrete and RCC bridges connecting Azad Jammu and Kashmir with neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) are being guarded by reinforced police personnel, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

Mirza Zahid Hussain, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Muzaffarabad, said in a press release that the step had been taken in the light of the decisions at a coordination conference held recently to review the security arrangements for the foreigners, mainly the Chinese workers at some mega power projects.

According to him, while the security at the power projects had also been beefed up, the police personnel deployed at all entry and exit points, including these bridges, had also been directed to thoroughly check vehicles and persons entering and exiting the territorial limits of Muzaffarabad manually as well as with the help of gadgets.

Furthermore, police pickets had also been set up along the main arteries on the AJK side of River Jhelum and River Kunhar to intercept and inspect suspicious persons and vehicles, he added.

SSP Hussain said he had also ordered police stations and police posts to implement the national action plan.

He informed that during the ‘combing operations,’ nine persons had been arrested for violation of the relevant law whereby they were required to submit the details of their tenants to the respective police stations.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2023