Red flags on Army vehicles replaced with white-and-blue ones in Kashmir

Srinagar: The Army in Jammu and Kashmir has replaced red flags on its vehicles with white-and-blue ones and road barriers in sensitive zones have been given a new look in a move to ease the feeling of alienation among people during security checks and drills, an Army official said on Sunday.
“Nowadays, the Army vehicles in Kashmir are moving with white-and-blue flags. Earlier, the Army vehicles used to have red flags and even the soldiers in Road Opening Parties carried red flags while clearing way for convoys, the Army official said.He said road barriers in sensitive zones have also been given a new look.
“These steps have been taken to address the feeling of alienation among citizens at the security checks and drills, he said.
The official said there is a need for understanding the fact that the security checks are necessitated due to the existing threat of attacks by militants on the security forces and common man and more the threat, more will be the preventive checks and drills.
“These checks will be necessary till the time the militant threat can be brought down. This effort at countering militancy has to be a joint citizen-soldier effort, he said.
The official said these visual steps taken by the force are a message that the security forces are reaching out to the citizens for better mutual understanding and there is a desire to minimise the discomfort to the citizens due to the security drills.
The intent is to improve the citizen-soldier connect so that both work jointly to address the challenge of militancy in Jammu & Kashmir, the official said.