A security review meeting chaired by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday decided to tighten security around key infrastructure projects and construction camps in Jammu and Kashmir.

The move was necessitated by a brazen militant attempt to disrupt work on one of the two major tunnels that would connect Ladakh with the rest of the country. Seven persons — a local doctor and six migrant labourers working on the Z Morh tunnel in Ganderbal’s Gagangir — were killed in the October 20 attack.

The LG’s directive is likely to put additional strain on the security forces across Jammu and Kashmir as there are scores of important infrastructure projects.

“The lieutenant governor asked Jammu and Kashmir police officers to ensure stringent measures to tighten the security grid around key infrastructure projects and construction camps for the safety of workers. He stressed the establishment of mechanisms for regular coordination meetings with project implementing agencies,” an official spokesman said.

The meeting, which was attended by top civil and police officers but had no participation of any elected representative, suggested that the LG was still at the helm when it came to security issues.

Some members of the country’s Right-wing ecosystem had blamed the Omar Abdullah government for the fresh spurt in militant attacks in the Valley, triggering suspicion among sections of elected representatives of the new dispensation that they were being forced to share the responsibility without having any real power on security issues.

Attacks on security forces and civilians have continued unabated after the scrapping of special status to Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 despite the central government's repeated attempts to present a rosy picture.

The spokesman said the LG directed the police to conduct security audits of infrastructure projects, round-the-clock naka checking at strategic points, night patrolling and area domination.

"The police must ensure a robust security and intelligence grid and intensified, well-planned joint operations with the army and other security agencies to eliminate terrorism,” he quoted the LG as saying.

Jammu and Kashmir's new police chief, Nalin Prabhat; principal secretary of the home department, Chandraker Bharti; and other top officers took part in the review meeting held at the Raj Bhavan. “The entire terror ecosystem requires to be dismantled,” Sinha said.