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| PC’s advice to CM: Handle Kashmir situation with care –politically, swiftly | | |
EARLY TIMES DESK
Jammu, July 10: A day after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah returned home after elaborate meetings with top central leaders explaining them the latest Valley situation, the Union Home Minister P Chidambram has dropped for him a piece of advise - handle the unrest in Kashmir politically and handle it swiftly.
Speaking to a news channel Union Home Minister Chidambaram said the response to the strife in the Valley has to be political.
When asked about the state government's decision to withdraw CRPF from Baramulla after the killing of four civilian protestors, the Home Minister said that he supported the phasing out of the central forces from the Valley. The minister, however, added that the CRPF had acted on orders from the state police.
Chidambaram also said that declining militancy meant the government was considering limiting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to fewer areas in the Valley.
Abdullah, under fire for his rather “inept” handling of law and order problems in Shopian, Baramulla and Srinagar, now has the Centre asking him to adopt a more proactive approach to deal with crises involving public protests.
What has particularly miffed the Centre is his recent declaration promising “phased withdrawal” of CRPF from the Valley, as against the consensus within the security establishment that the situation in J&K does not warrant a pullout “in the foreseeable future”.
His overnight decision to order the withdrawal of CRPF from Baramulla, and its rollback hours later to enable the force personnel to be on static deployment in reserve police lines, was seen by many as “immature”, considering the adverse effect it could have on the force’s morale.
Besides, all security agencies are convinced about the need for CRPF to remain as the prime counter-insurgency force, not only due to its numbers and fighting prowess but also because it is a “national” force that could effectively counter separatist elements.
Mr Abdullah, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this week, was told in no uncertain terms not to take decisions in haste, especially when the morale of the forces was at stake. Also, he was told to ensure that any allegations of human rights violations
involving the security personnel are immediately enquired into and the accused dealt with firmly. This, the Centre feels, would prevent minor law and order complaints from blowing out of proportion and triggering public protests that often become very difficult to handle. It is while dealing with these violent protestors that the Central forces have to resort to crowd control measures, including firing, leading to further public outrage.
A case in point was the alleged rape-cum-murder of two women in Shopian. Soon after their bodies were fished out of a local waterbody and allegations were raised that the two were raped and murdered by security personnel, Mr Abdullah, based on a half-baked briefing by local officers, went on record to deny the charges and declared that the women had died due to drowning.
Of course, the post-mortem report later proved the presence of injury marks on the bodies of the dead women. An embarrassed chief minister was quick to order an enquiry, besides deputing two of his ministers to Shopian to quell the protests.
Even in Baramulla, his handling of raging protests over allegations by a woman of misbehaviour at a police station left much to be desired. Mr Abdullah, instead of acting against the guilty police personnel, only appeared to have given a fillip to the separatists’ campaign about “excesses by men in uniform” by ordering the withdrawal of CRPF
from the district.
It was only after his DGP threw up his hands in despair and admitted that his force could not single-handedly keep law and order that the CRPF was called back and placed under static deployment in the reserve police lines.
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