Gangtok, Dec. 28: Responsibility for security of the famed Rumtek monastery and the Sikkim Raj Bhavan will soon be shifted from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Official sources said the ITBP would take over from the CISF in the first week of January.

Sources also said the ITBP was called in since it was likely to be posted on the international borders with Bhutan and Nepal later. This would be in addition to their duties at Rumtek and Raj Bhavan.

At present, two companies of the CISF are posted in the state. They have been guarding the Rumtek monastery since they took over from the Sikkim Armed Police many years ago.

Rumtek has been under the security scanner ever since violence erupted in the monastery between two factions in the mid-nineties. The Sikkim Armed Police eventually had to enter the monastery premises and take control. It was later replaced by the CISF.

Security was further tightened at the monastery after the emergence of three claimants to the position of Karmapa of the Karma Kagyu order.

While a majority of people in Sikkim have accepted Orgyen Trinley Dorji as the real Karmapa, rival claimants include Thaye Dorji, the contender backed by the Shamarpa camp, and Dawa Sangpo Dorji, who is also known as the Sherpa Karmapa.

Shamarpa is one of the Rumtek regents whose entry into Sikkim has been restricted by the ministry of external affairs.