Youth beat terror as scores turn up for police job test
MORE THAN ONE LAKH CANDIDATES APPLIED FOR 5,000 POSTS, AND OVER 50,000 APPLICATIONS WERE RECEIVED FROM KASHMIR ITSELF
ANANTNAG: Bashir (name changed), a resident of volatile south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, is an electrician with a degree from an industrial training institute. However, he realised that getting a job based on his qualifications was almost impossible.
On Friday morning, he queued up to participate in a police recruitment drive in an attempt to land a job that would help support his younger siblings and retired father. They, however, were blissfully unaware of what he was up to.
In the last few months, Kashmir has witnessed instances of policemen being killed, their families threatened, and houses ransacked. Despite this, the ongoing Jammu and Kashmir police recruitment drive has seen a high turnout across the Valley. Over one lakh candidates applied for 5,000 posts, and over 50,000 applications were received from Kashmir itself.
Bashir and many other candidates were wary of getting their photographs taken by photographers, or speaking to reporters. “I have not told my friends in the village that I am going for the police recruitment rally. My file was kept hidden in my jacket,” an applicant said. “If the neighbours come to know, they will question us for wanting to join a force that commits atrocities on us. Someone might attack me or even threaten my family.”
The applicant said he could not trust anybody to understand his desperation to land a job in a region where unemployment is rampant. Kashmiri policemen often find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. Besides being attacked by militants, they are despised by a section of the civilians who bear a strong anti-India sentiment. The stone-pelters they chase during protests are often friends or neighbours.
Earlier this month, militants killed five Kashmiri policemen and two local bank guards in an attack on a cash van. But the aspiring policemen appeared to be unfazed by these incidents. “I am not scared. Life and death are in the hands of Allah. I will work for the safety of Kashmiris,” one of them said. The applicant admitted that his family will be worried if he joins the police. “But then, they also want me to get a good job,” he said.
In view of militants increasingly targeting policemen’s houses in the Valley, DGP SP Vaid had reportedly asked personnel — especially those from south Kashmir — to “avoid visiting their homes for the next few months”. While political observers admitted that the state police was indeed a major employer in the Valley, they said the overwhelming response to recruitment drives did not necessarily indicate containment of the antiIndia sentiment in the region.
During the peak of last year’s summer unrest, at least 26,000 youngsters applied for jobs as special police officers — a temporary position in the law enforcement agency with a starting salary of ₹5,000. Sources said many among the applicants had targeted police with stones.