What security forces are up against in Jammu

Every year, nearly one crore pilgrims visit the shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi in Reasi district.

On June 9, about 80 km from the shrine, a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims was shot at by militants, resulting in the driver losing control of the vehicle which fell into a gorge.

Nine pilgrims, including a two-year-old, died in the incident.

The bus was returning from Reasi’s Shiv Kohri shrine and heading to Katra, a town synonymous with the hill shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi. “Ninety five per cent of those who come to Vaishno Devi also visit Shiv Kohri,” said Rakesh Wazir, president of a hotels and restaurants association in Katra.

For a brief while, Wazir said, the Reasi attack scared off pilgrims. “There was a massive dip in pilgrims in the first days after the attack. It was primarily because it was wrongly projected in the media that the attack took place in Katra,” he said.

Ten days after the attack on the bus of pilgrims, Reasi police arrested a 45-year-old man from neighbouring Rajouri district.

Identified as Hakam Din, the police said, he had sheltered and fed the militants involved in the Reasi bus attack. For this job, police said, militants had paid Din, a member of the nomadic Bakerwal community,...

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