Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Sunday met the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh after the party’s national council meeting and requested him to re-deploy the ITBP on the Chamba-Jammu and Kashmir border to check infiltration.
In a formal appeal to the Home Minister Mr. Dhumal handed over a letter to him and apprised him of the situation on the border of Himachal’s Chamba district and the neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the UPA government had discontinued the patrolling and manning of this border by the ITBP troupes and had withdrawn it when it came to power in 2004. The Central force was deployed by the then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister L.K. Advani when the terrorists killed 35 labourers. The incident had taken place in 1998 and the ITBP was deployed at the expense of central government, Mr. Dhumal said.
Mr. Rajnath Singh assured the State BJP that he would soon come to the hill State to address its security issues.
