His visit comes amid heightened focus on border management to scuttle infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics, and stepped up anti-terror operations that left four hardcore Pakistani terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) dead in nearly a dozen encounters in Kathua, Udhampur and Kishtwar districts over the past two weeks

Shah reached Jammu late Thursday night and was received by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and senior BJP leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Sunil Sharma

In Kathua, the home minister virtually inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of six welfare schemes for border guards at Bobiyian

Shah also held a high-level security review meeting at Lok Bhavan in Jammu and distributed compassionate appointment letters to the families of some terror victims

On Saturday, the home minister will preside over a meeting on the development of Jammu and Kashmir at Lok Bhawan