Representative image
SRINAGAR: Army convoys carrying troops, equipment and other supplies to Ladakh continued to wound their way up the Srinagar-Leh and Jammu-Srinagar highways on Thursday amid restrictions on civilian traffic at some points.
A senior police official said around 150 Army trucks and buses had passed through the Srinagar-Leh highway in just over 24 hours. By Thursday evening, the number of Army oil tankers moving towards Ladakh crossed 300.
Sources said even OB vans of news channels had been stopped at Gangangeer in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir for several hours on Wednesday, prompting J&K police to clarify that highway traffic was normal barring limited restrictions on “inter-UT movement” of civilians because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Srinagar–Kargil NHW is open for vehicular movement. Only Covid-19 protocol for inter-UT movement is essentially required to be adopted,” Ganderbal SSP Khalil Poswal tweeted.
But sources said the road to Ladakh wasn’t thrown open to civilian traffic until after most of the Army vehicles had crossed the Srinagar-Leh highway. “This was done primarily to rule out the possibility of any disruptions by terrorists,” an official said.
FacebookTwitterLinkedinMail
