Tens of thousands of Indian soldiers were Sunday deployed along a key Kashmir road to avert a possible attack by Muslim militants on Hindus making their annual pilgrimage to Amarnath, police said.
"Nearly 20,000 army and paramilitary soldiers are guarding a 300-kilometer (185-mile) hilly stretch of road leading up to the Amarnath mountaintop cave," said S.P Vaid, deputy director general of police in Jammu, in southern Kashmir.
"The area has been sanitized ahead of July 2 when the devotees will really start pouring in for the month-long Hindu pilgrimage," he added.
Kashmiri Muslim militant groups have called for a ban of the annual Hindu pilgrimage.
Vaid said troops armed with sniffer dogs and sophisticated bomb detectors had begun searching the highway for landmines and explosive devices.
While most of the Pahalgam road is open to vehicular traffic, the last 24 kilometres (15 miles) to the holy cave have to be traveled on foot -- JAMMU, India (AFP)
