Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday ordered the withdrawal of more than 10,000 security forces personnel from Jammu and Kashmir. Most of these security personnel were deployed in Kashmir prior to last year’s August 5 announcement of Article 370 rollback and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories.
“It has been decided to withdraw 100 companies of CAPFs with immediate effect from Jammu and Kashmir and revert them back to their respective locations,” reads the MHA order.
In August 2019, the MHA had deployed around 400 additional companies of security forces across J&K before making the announcement to abrogate the Constitutional provision which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The state was put under a strict lockdown on August 4 and a majority of the political leaders were detained before the announcement was made.
