SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has ordered replacement of India’s paramilitary, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) by state police for the front-line security role for capital city.
Tuesday evening’s announcement comes in the wake of recent use of “excessive force” by the CRPF in downtown city which ruffled many feathers, and embarrassed the state chief minister who had only last week proclaimed “zero tolerance to human rights violations”.
In an incident of CRPF highhandedness in the Saraf Kadal area of the old city, a case has been registered against a senior CRPF officer for beating up shopkeepers, locals and also smashing of vehicles during an anti-Israeli demonstration on Friday last.
The decision to put the local police in the forefront in the sensitive summer capital Srinagar reverses the role of the central forces which have been playing the vanguard role in maintaining law and order since 1990, and assigns to them a secondary role now.
The move is seen here as an attempt by the new state government to give a new dimension to the strained people-government relations as the removal of central forces from the city has been one of the major demands of various political parties and locals.
Acting swiftly on the directions of the chief minister, the state police department has begun deployment of its personnel at public places in the city.
The city’s law and order has been handled by either the paramilitary, Border Security Force (BSF) or the CRPF ever since militancy erupted in Kashmir in 1990, and state police played a secondary role. It, however, remains to be seen as to which force will be assigned the job of manning the scores of bunkers dotting the city
“Besides improving the public-police coordination, it will also result in speedier redressal of public grievances and supplement the efforts of the law and order machinery in the maintenance of peace and order with the active cooperation of the public,” an official spokesman here said.
However, with a sharp decrease in terror incidents last year, which also saw huge turnout during the almost incident-free legislative elections, 2008 remained the most peaceful time in the troubled Jammu and Kashmir since 1990.
According to official figures, the number of militancy-related incidents came down to three digits — 708 — for the first time in the nearly two decades of separatist insurgency during which 42,876 people have been killed. The dead include 16,832 civilians, 5,204 security personnel and 20,840 militants.
The figures indicate that from 1990 to 2008, a total of 67,430 militancy related incidents have been registered in Jammu and Kashmir. The highest number of 5,946 incidents was reported in 1995 when violence was at its peak. Since then, it has seen a gradual fall every year but in 2001 violence again peaked with 4,536 incidents.
According to the figures, 147 civilians were killed last year as compared to 399 in 2007. The highest number of civilian killings in terror related incidents was 1,424 in 1996, the year when the first state assembly elections were held after more than six years of president’s rule.
Among 1,000 civilians killed in 4,211 incidents in 1990, 539 were killed in firing between militants and security forces. At least 339 militants were killed in 2008 while 460 were killed in 2007. Highest number of 2,020 militants were killed in 2001.
According to the figures, 85 security personnel, including 20 policemen and the rest from the Indian Army and paramilitary forces, were killed last year. The highest number of security personnel deaths — 613 — was reported in 2001.
Meanwhile, as US President Barack Obama moves into the White House on the high note of renewing America’s promise to the world, there are renewed anxieties in India over likely US activism on the Kashmir issue and linking it up with terror flowing from Pakistan.
New Delhi’s concern springs from some recent statements made by influential figures in the Obama team that sought to club Jammu and Kashmir with other conflict-torn regions of the world and indicated the need for international mediation between India and Pakistan.
“Make no mistake about it. Increasing pressure will be brought on India over Kashmir,” Satish Chandra, former deputy national security adviser, told IANS.
Officials in Foreign Ministry, who declined to be named, said it would be premature to make any comment. But they admitted there were all-too-real concerns that the Obama administration may bring the Kashmir issue to the fore on the “flawed assumption” that the resolution of the issue could be an incentive to Islamabad to fight wholeheartedly in the US campaign to liberate Afghanistan from the clutches of the Taleban.
— With input from agencies
