New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Jammu on October 3 and address two mega rallies in Rajouri and Baramulla on October 4 and 5. This is Shah’s first visit to Baramulla after the abrogation of Article 370.
Sharing the itinerary of his visit, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officials said Amit Shah will reach Jammu on October 3 evening and will hold a meeting with the local party officials.
The next day he will visit the Raghunath temple, address a BJP rally in Rajouri during the day and leave for Srinagar late evening.
The Union Home Minister will address another party rally in Baramulla on October 5 at 10am.
It is to be noted that this is the first time Shah will address a rally outside Srinagar.
As per reports, earlier he was supposed to reach Jammu on a three-day visit to the Union Territory on September 30 and hold the public meetings in Rajouri on October 1 and Baramulla on October 2.
"I received a call from the office of the Home Minister and was told that since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for Tokyo for the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Shah has to stay at the national capital and cannot attend any function outside it," news agency PTI quoted Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina as saying.
Meanwhile, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh, who visited Rajouri and Baramulla – the venues of the two BJP rallies – said that all necessary security arrangements have been made ahead of Shah’s visit.
Earlier in the day, the police chief, along with Additional Director General of Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh, visited Rajouri and held a high-level meeting to review the security arrangements in connection with Shah’s visit. He went to Baramulla in north Kashmir the previous day.
"We are keeping a close watch and looking at the security requirements on a day-to-day basis," the police chief said, adding, "Whatever inputs we have, we are acting on that and the counter-insurgency operations will continue.”
(With inputs from Neeraj Pandey)