ROLE OF KASHMIR POLICE

Besides this, employees of the State Govt. also backed the great resistance movement of Kashmir and some, of them attained martyrdom, particularly the employees of the J & K police force, who protested against mysterious arrests of youth and their custodial deaths by the occupation troops and became target of venomous propaganda in India.

This is evident from a news despatch from Jammu by Amit Baruah, captioned as "J & K police being marginalised" in the daily Hindu Madras, Sunday, 5.2.95. The report is full of allegations and suggestions against the Govt. Some of the excerpts are as under:

"Reduced to spectator status in the Kashmir valley, the Jammu & Kashmir police is in danger, being marginalised in the Jammu region as well if the serial blasts at Maulana Azad Stadium on republic day are any pointer."

The root has now spread to Jammu with the police failing to perform its elementary duties. Even the lives of highly protected VIPs are not safe as demonstrated by the Jammu blasts.

A major "rebellion" in the State police was the first crisis faced by Mr. Saxena in January 1990 with the J & K Armed police exchanging fire with the Army at the police control room (PCR) in Srinagar.

A second "revolt" took place in Srinagar in the first quarter of 1993 with armed policemen roaming the streets of the Valley with impunity and holding the then DGP. Mr. B. S. Bedi, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Mr. Mahmudur Rehman, and other officials hostage inside the PCR. The Army was pressed into service and the policemen surrendered without a shot being fired".

Weeding out operations took place on both the occasions with several policemen rightly being dismissed for taking up cudgels against the State and acting as a veritable wing of the militant movement.

Realising that tough talking outsiders had been unable to restore the credibility and efficacy of the State police, Mr. M. N. Subharwal, who had been shunted out of Kashmir, was appointed the DGP.

The reality in the Valley is that a vast majority of the State police personnel wear their uniform, come on duty and draw their salaries despite the recent creation of Special task force in all districts of the Valley.

The state IPS cadre is a thin one with a mere handful of senior officers in the rank of IGP. There is only one Kashmiri among the few officers holding the rank of IGP The representation of local Kashmiris among the DIGs is also very low.

The recent changes in the State police with the tasks of intelligence gathering. CID, anti-hijacking and counter intelligence being allocated to ICPs one each in Jammu and the Valley are unlikely to make a difference to the operations of the police.

Also two officers of the rank of SP have been placed under suspension for the serial blasts that rocked Jammu city on January 26, killing seven persons and injuring several others.

The central security forces operating in Kashmir feel that the local Kashmiri officers and men cannot be trusted as they are "involved" in militancy at one level or another. Local Kashmiri officers were systematically removed 20 from positions of importance after Governor's rule was imposed in the State in January 1990.

The danger of "Contaminations" and the price paid by sidelining local officers has not really helped the Government because high profile incidents have continued to take place despite the fact that "trustworthy officers" are in place.

A suggestion made by the local police to deploy central forces in the police stations in the valley was rejected out of hand. for fear that the Kashmiris. may leak information to the militants. In fact, no sensitive messages are ever put out on the local police wireless.

More often than not, the job of the local policeman in Kashmir has been reduced to handing over bodies of militants and other to their next of kin and registering FIR's after the entire incident is over.

Transfers and creation of new posts will not help. For five years, talk of making the police stand on its feet has been heard but this has not been actualised in practice.

The basic issues have to be addressed. For anti militancy measures the state police has to get into the act. A few arrests by the STFs is a mere pointer to the actual potential of much maligned force" ("Hindu- Madras")