SRINAGAR: The state police has passed a strict order to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) that they should not carry guns or use firearms while dealing with protesters in the valley, where tensions are growing after a youth died of bullet wounds on Monday.
The paramilitary soldiers have been told “to be fully equipped with riot control gear, no personnel should carry any weapon”, the Pioneer reported.
The advisory comes amid CRPF reinforcements rushing in to deal with the law and order situation in Kashmir where an indefinite curfew continues for the fourth day today after Afzal Guru’s hanging on Feb 9.
Inspector General CRPF SS Sandhu confirmed to the newspaper that the police directive asked them to keep their firearms inconspicuous “because concealing firearms would not make the security personnel provocative”.
But he was quick to add that they would use the guns according to the situation on the ground.
“Our men will keep the firearms in vehicles without carrying them on shoulders. You never know when a situation arises and use of firearms becomes necessary,” Sandhu added.
Unruly
The police directive has perhaps been issued after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s instructions.
Soon after Guru was hanged, Abdullah told reporters that he had asked the security establishment to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with protests.
Abdullah fears the situation could repeat itself like that of summer 2010, when a teenager died after he was hit by a teargas shell, an incident which triggered a chain reaction of protests and subsequent killings.
Atleast 111 people, mostly young men and children, died that year and doctors said most of them had bullet wounds or their upper bodies were pellet ridden.
The then Law Minister, Ali Mohammad Sagar went on record to say that the CRPF was firing their guns without reason and that it was “an unruly force”.
Above the waist
The fresh directive from the police, which leads the CRPF in local law and order duties, however, seems to have made little impact.
At least one teenager died on Monday while another is battling for life after the CRPF allegedly fired their guns to quell protests in north Kashmir’s Watergaam area.
Ubaid Mushtaq died due to injuries in the stomach. Sajad Ahmed is still struggling to survive due to injuries in the head.
Witnesses say many others who are injured also indicate that the guns are not being aimed below the waist.
Nearly 70,000 soldiers of the CRPF are stationed in Kashmir, where an armed conflict which killed tens of thousands is waning.
