PM to spend Diwali with soldiers at Rajouri border outposts

The forward area of Nowshera sector in Jammu & Kashmir’s Rajouri is gearing up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Diwali visit on Thursday, 4 November. Prime Minister Modi is expected to visit the border outposts to spend Diwali with the troops.

Ever since he became the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi has been a regular visitor to the border outposts on Diwali. He gifts sweets and other gifts to the jawans. Modi had spent Diwali with the troops in Rajouri in 2019 as well. Army personnel are conducting a massive search in the forest belt of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Rajouri to flush out terrorists. Poonch has seen a number of casualties of Army personnel in fights against terrorists. An officer and a jawan of the Indian Army were killed in a mine blast near a forward post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri on Saturday. Another soldier was injured in the incident.

Another important sector for the Indian Army is the Ladakh sector, where troops have been deployed along the India-China border for more than 18 months now to check any incursion by the neighbouring country. Since assuming office in 2014, the Prime Minister has been celebrating Diwali by spending time with soldiers in the forward areas in states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

On Friday, PM Modi will visit Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhand where he will unveil the statue, and inaugurate the samadhi of Adi Shankaracharya which has been reconstructed after its destruction in the 2013 Uttarakhand floods. As per a release by the Ministry of Culture, PM Modi will also inaugurate key infrastructure projects worth Rs 130 crore, including Saraswati Retaining Wall Aasthapath and Ghats, Mandakini Retaining Wall Aasthapath, Tirth Purohit Houses and Garud Chatti bridge on river Mandakini. He is also scheduled to address a public rally during his visit.