NEW DELHI: On the day the center scrapped special status from Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two union territories, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval reached Srinagar by Air force plane to oversee the security deployment. He hasn’t left the state since.

Ajit Doval has visited Anantnag in South Kashmir on Saturday and interacted with cattle traders and locals ahead of Eid. He has been camping here since August 6, a day after the Central Government took decision to revoke a temporary provision of Article 370 (of the Constitution of India).

Locals have taken the decision favorably as all the development funds will reach them without being trapped by a few political parties which set up a dynastic rule in the state.

Ajit Doval stopped at a cattle market set up in Anantnag – a hotbed of terrorist activities. Not a single bullet has been fired in last 10 days and Eid-al-Adha  (popularly called Bakarid here) passed all peacefully except some of the miscreants tried to disrupt the festival but suppressed by the locals chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jay’ (Hail to India and motherland).

Home Ministry officials said it was a strategic decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send Mr Doval, a career intelligence officer, to gather first-hand information and take security related decisions real-time, according to the situation on the ground. Mr Doval would be in Kashmir valley till August 15 (commemoration of Independence Day).

“Regular chatter is being intercepted that Pakistan wants to carry out a spectacular attack before Independence Day,” says the intelligence report.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has in the past few days travelled to all sensitive districts, including Shopian, Pulwama and Anantnag. “It was a symbolic gesture and also to ensure all agencies work in tandem with each other,” an officer said.

Locals are in full support of the decision taken by the Narendra Modi Government, says the ground report. Ajit Doval asked the security officials to identify and address the factors responsible for radicalization and fresh recruitment from these areas.

Sources said south Kashmir areas have seen maximum number of recruitment to terror groups. Most terrorist commanders from Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen have been from these areas. Pakistan is looking for opportunity to foment militancy and has unleashed these groups to broden their ground base in Kashmir at the Indian side.

According to officials, Mr Doval acknowledged that home-grown terrorism is going to be the biggest challenge for the security forces in the coming days. He has asked the security forces to exercise maximum restraint. The festival of Eid-al-Adha went peacefully in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, the government said, sharing photos of the mosques in and around Srinagar and the size of the congregation in surrounding towns.

In a statement, the Home Ministry said large prayer congregations were seen at many places of Kashmir valley including Baramulla, where 10,000 people gathered, and in Bandipora, around where 5,000 people took part in the prayers. (Agencies)