Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday chaired a security review meeting on the upcoming Amarnath Yatra with senior officers of the army, paramilitary forces, intelligence agencies and the Jammu & Kashmir administration, officials aware of the matter said.

Shah arrived in Jammu on Thursday evening in his second visit to the Union Territory after the April 22 Pahalgam attack. He is set to visit Poonch on Friday to meet families of those affected by shelling during the military hostilities with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor earlier this month.

Officials said that Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi, J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Tapan Deka, J&K police chief Nalin Prabhat, chiefs of paramilitary forces, and other officials of the UT administration were present in the meeting.

The Amarnath Yatra, scheduled to take place from July 3 to August 9, is being held amid a high alert in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack. One of the routes for the Yatra leading to the shrine in Chandanwari is via Pahalgam where an attack on April 22 claimed 26 civilians and injured many more.

CRPF’s top officials, including director general GP Singh, visited the Nunwan base camp on Thursday to review the security.

Later in the evening, BSF chief Daljit Chawdhary, who reviewed the security in Poonch area of Jammu, also held a review meeting on pilgrimage security. He is likely to visit the Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage route during the weekend.

HT, on Thursday, reported that chiefs of all paramilitary forces have been directed to visit J&K regularly and conduct the security review for the annual pilgrimage.

Officials also said that the ministry of home affairs (MHA), in a letter to the J&K administration last week, confirmed that 581 companies of paramilitary forces would be at the disposal of the administration during the pilgrimage. The companies include all the central armed police forces –– CRPF, BSF, CISF, SSB and ITBP.

With 219 companies, CRPF will have the most number of personnel deployed for security. The sanctioned strength of one CRPF company is around 120-130 depending on the location.

A CRPF officer, on the condition of anonymity, said that in the last two days, top officials have held a security review in Srinagar and Jammu, and also conducted an aerial survey of the pilgrimage. Senior officials from the ITBP, which is handling the shrine’s security, will also be reviewing security plans.

Last year, nearly 512,000 pilgrims had visited the Amarnath shrine – the highest in at least 12 years, according to data shared by the Union home ministry.