Jammu, Sept 21: The family of Chief of Army Staff General N C Vij has been shifted from the ancestral house here to the Army cantonment following disclosure by an arrested Lashker-e-Toiba militant that the premise was in the hit list of a suicide attack by the militant outfit, official sources said today. They said the family has been shifted from the house in Kachi Chavni area of city to the cantonment for security reasons.
Sajad alias abu haneef, who was arrested recently from Mendhar area of Poonch district, told his interrogators that the Army chief's house was in the 'hit list' of the LeT which had assigned him along with an associate, who was killed in an encounter later, to carryout a suicide attack on Vij's ancestral house in the old city, the sources said. Since the police would not be in a position to counter any such suicide attack by the ultras in a densely populated area of the city, senior police officers, in consultation with the Army, decided to shift the family of the Army chief, that included his parents and brother's family, they said.
In view of the high threat perception to the family members of General Vij, the authorities preferred to keep them in the most protected zone in Army cantonment in Jammu, the sources said. Prior to the shifting of the family, police had strengthened the security in his ancestral house, they said, adding the guards would continue to remain deployed at the house. Bureau Report