CRPF men caught between azadi and higher-ups In Sopore, two young SPOs ‘quit’ through videos on social media
IN THE LINE OF FIRE Men in uniform say they take stones from protesters in Kashmir but are forced to retaliate with ‘restraint’
SRINAGAR: “Indian Dogs Go Back” reads a graffiti on the streets of Old Srinagar. Junctions are christened ‘Shaheed Burhan Chowk’ after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, whose killing last month triggered protests.
Near the Jamia Masjid, where two militants and a CRPF commandant were killed on August 15, sit a group of the force’s men — from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Kerala and Tamil Nadu — with their blue armoured vehicle parked nearby.
The mosque is empty, so are the streets.
But that is for now.
“Every evening, there is heavy stone pelting,” says the Andhraite jawan. “We take the stones, but are supposed to retaliate with ‘maximum restraint’... reduce using pellets and tear gas shells.”
The protests since Wani’s killing had boiled over as agitators started raining stones on security forces. The retaliation left 67 dead and thousands injured, triggering a debate over the use of pellets and tear gas shells to quell protests.
“If we get injured, no newspaper publishes our photo,” the jawan said, explaining how they are caught between the devil and deep sea — the frenzied mob and the “orders from above”.
During HT’s tour of restive Srinagar, witnesses said protesters shout slogans against the CRPF rather than the local police.
“You don’t know what will happen when the stone pelting starts,” says the Bengali trooper.
Pointing to the vehicle, he says, “This bunker… they can put petrol and burn it down,” leaving them without a vehicle to go back to their camps.
The wait for another one might take hours. Worse is when the phone lines go down, cutting out contact with their families, who “get worried watching news”.
“If I tell my wife back in a village in Karnataka that I face stones from protesters every day, she will say leave your job and come back home,” says a jawan.
An Assamese trooper, standing guard near Lal Chowk in Srinagar, however, said his family would be happy to know about him and asked if his picture would come in the papers.
None of the CRPF personnel wished to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
But one jawan, who did not want even his native state to be reported, summed up the situation: “Kashmiris want azadi. India won’t give it. Between the two, we are caught in the line of fire.” SRINAGAR: Videos of policemen — deployed in Kashmir — announcing their resignations and people cheering them on are doing the rounds on social media.
A video from the Valley’s volatile Sopore district shows two young cops, Firdous Ahmed and Waseem Ahmed Shiekh, being cheered by the crowds as they announce their resignation.
The incident, sources said, took place on Monday in Behrampora village where nearly 80 people were injured during raids two days ago.
Both the men were special police officers (SPOs), who — according to locals — resigned under public pressure after the alleged excesses by the police.
Shiekh was posted at the subdivisional police officer’s office in Rafiabad Sopore as a driver for the last three years.
He publicly resigned while another cop Ahmed has been working as an SPO on an ad hoc basis at the local police stations.
In the video, villagers are seen garlanding the two men when they announced their decisions.
Reports suggest that after the killing of a local Hurriyat member, Fayaz Ahmed Rather, on July 29, people had asked local policemen to resign from the departments.
However, Sopore SP Harmeet Singh Mehta said: “I have no knowledge of any public announcements but so far, no cop has tendered his resignation.”
Earlier, a National Conference leader’s video pledging support to the “freedom struggle” had gone viral on social media.
The leader, Iftikhar Hussain Misger, had, however, later denied resigning under pressure.