| ‘Super cop’ who restored normalcy in Valley in 2008 & ‘10, sidelined in 2016 | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 21 The police official, who played a vital role in restoration of normalcy in Kashmir during 2008 and 2010 agitations, could have proved equally effective to tackle the ongoing prevalent unrest in the Valley, but he was transferred out of the state, with many believing that some leaders in the ruling coalition wanted to cash his transfer for “personal gains”.
Additional Director General of Police SM Sahai’s transfer came at a time when the Valley continues to be on the edge, with normalcy nowhere in sight, while government struggles to restore law and order.
Sahai, who was heading the intelligence wing of the state police, was sent on a central deputation earlier this month, on the “recommendation of the state government.”
Though he bagged a more powerful chair, as Joint Secretary in the National Security Council Secretariat, which is directly commanded and controlled by Prime Minister, his transfer has exposed how the ruling PDP-led coalition is exploiting police officials for apparent “witch-hunting.”
A 1987 batch J&K cadre IPS official, Sahai, had emerged as the “super cop” who remained “last hope” for the previous regimes when Kashmir witnessed similar agitations in the past around a decade: in 2008 and 2010.
During the previous agitations, normalcy was restored when he was the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir range.
After his successful stint in 2008 during the then PDP-Congress alliance, Sahai was sent on a central deputation. But mere two years later, Kashmir erupted again. While civilian protests spread uncontrollably across the Valley, the then chief minister Omar Abdullah brought back Sahai as his “savior” IGP Kashmir.
Through his “smart policing”, where “less of physical pressure and more of mind game was applied”, Kashmir limped back to normal by the autumn of 2010, bringing a sigh of relief for the sinking boat of then Omar Abdullah led government, which subsequently survived.
While Kashmir is again on the boil, in the wake of killing of Hizb commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani and his two colleagues on July 8, for the past three months security analysts have been discussing that a similar situation could have erupted in February 2013, when Parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru was secretly hanged at Tihar Jail in the national capital.
But a strict curfew clamped across the Valley prevented any major eventuality.
While the state government had reportedly got inputs about Guru’s hanging on the preceding night, by the time he was hanged, Kashmir was already under strict curfew, leaving little scope any major protests.
It is believed that on the fateful night Sahai and other senior officials kept traveling from Kulgam district in south Kashmir to Baramulla in the north, only to see security preparedness.
And, the overnight preparedness worked. Barring a few incidents of protests, the strict curfew prevented the situation from going out of control.
That time return of normalcy again proved a blessing for Omar Abdullah who could have otherwise faced agitation similar to what his predecessor Mehbooba Mufti is currently facing.
Salvaging successive regimes from unrest, analysts across the country have been crediting Sahai as “super cop”. As per a report published by a New Delhi based news portal earlier this year, “Sahai has never been seen as a ‘yes minister’. But interestingly, from the Muftis to Abdullahs, successive regimes desperately banked on him for their survival.”
Since March this year, when the state was under a brief Governor rule, Sahai had been heading the CID wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Though he was not in the field job and could obviously not have been demoted as IGP to directly control Kashmir situation, his expertise could have benefitted the government in the restoration of normalcy.
But then, he was transferred in the midst of the unrest.
While Sahai has been “sidelined”, it is believed that some in the ruling coalition wanted to cash his transfer for “personal gains”.
A section of ruling politicians wanted to spread a message that Sahai was transferred for having “worsened the situation in Kashmir” and that people of Kashmir should appreciate his “ouster” as achievement of the PDP-led government.
But the plan fizzled out in public circles. Unlike “smart policing”, which overcame previous unrests, Kashmir has this time been facing more of “muscle power” in the form of causalities and arrests, which run into dozens in every day official bulletins.
The number of arrested youth, which runs into thousands, is so huge that Education Minister, Syed Naeem Akhter Andrabi recently directed the ADGP, SP Vaid to make arrangements for class 10 and 12 exams in jails.
Sources said a coterie within the PDP-BJP alliance was unnerved by Sahai’s position as being the head of the intelligence, as he was keeping an “eagles eye” on their activities, including “political and other affairs.”
The political interference in official work can be gauged from the fact that a few months back, on May 31, a team of officials led by a Commissioner were summoned by the office of a ruling party, here, where some party workers allegedly grilled the official machinery for having “failed to come up to their expectations.”
Much against the tradition of transferring senior police officials via Cabinet meeting, this time at least half a dozen officials of the rank of SSP or above were transferred suddenly by virtue of administrative orders.
Amid this “never before political exploitation” of police, senior PDP leader and Member Parliament Muzaffar Hussain Beg recently dropped a bombshell saying that Jammu and Kashmir Police was sabotaging Mehbooba Mufti led government.
On October 19, while addressing a rally in Baramulla, Beg accused “some police officers” of working for opposition National Conference, saying that killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani was part of big conspiracy aimed to dislodge the present Government.
But a day later, as the news spread across the board, Beg refuted his own statement.
Police on the other hand already seems to be fed up of alleged exploitation at the hands of ruling politicians. It has been so since July when protests erupted. That time a DSP took to social media to publicly say that police force was being used as "prostitutes by politicians!"
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