Kashmir unrest: Police force faces public angst, tough choice as curfew continues in Srinagar

As Kashmir unrest continues relentlessly for a month, the Jammu and Kashmir police is facing an increasing backlash. The state police force has taken a frontal role in counter-insurgency and law and operations in the Valley. Policemen have been accused of using disproportionate force during the ongoing unrest, in which more than fifty civilians have been killed, several thousand have been injured and, more than hundreds have been partly or fully-blinded. Amid the accusations that the police has been “killing” civilians in cold blood, the Jammu and Kashmir home department is fighting a court battle to save a police officer, Yasir Qadri, from being booked under murder charges. In fact, for the first time in recent years, the separatist groups are publicly naming the police officials who have been allegedly involved in violating human rights in Kashmir, adding extra strain for the men in khaki. Qadri, a superintendent of police, is the most senior police officer whose name has surfaced in the killing of a civilian in the ongoing unrest. The family of the slain youth, Shabir Ahmad Mir, had pleaded before the court that their son was murdered in cold blood by Qadri and have demanded that police register an FIR against him. The case, which is subjudice, has cast a wider impact on the police department which fears that if they register an FIR against Qadri, one of their own, it will demoralise the strong force of 80,000 in the state. Locals are pretty enraged at Mir’s killing. Outside Qadri’s home in Hazratbal area of Srinagar, a graffiti: “Yasir The Murderer”, conveys the aggressive street sentiment against the police. [caption id=“attachment_2941892” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] There have been allegations against police officer Yasir Qadri for killing a Kashmiri youth. Image courtesy: Firstpost/Sameer Yasir[/caption] On Saturday, Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani for the first time, during the ongoing unrest, named a police official posted in south Kashmir, Touseef Mir, for committing “atrocities” in Anantnag district, describing him as a “criminal and butcher”. Geelani, in a statement, had said that Mir, who is a duty officer of police Chowki Bus Stand Anantnag, came to a venue of protests demonstration at Chee village in Khanabal, and “burnt the tent and took away other equipment and without any provocation resorted to pellet shelling injuring dozens of people including seven women, who received pellet injuries in their private parts.” “This criminal and butcher Touseef Mir is warned that it is high time that rouges and killers like you should be brought to book. We cannot stop people to tackle you directly. You should be ashamed for such heinous crimes against your own people,” Geelani added. Earlier separatist groups had restrained themselves from publicly naming Kashmir police officials. Since 2008 and 2010 street demonstrations, police has come under intense criticism for detaining young men, teenagers and minors. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir region, Javaid Mujtaba Gillani said in a statement on Sunday that since July, 3,329 personnel from JKP and CRPF have been injured while maintaining law and order in the Valley. Besides, two personnel from JKP were killed in the violent protests in the Valley. After the death of Hizbul commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani and the subsequent clashes, there have been several instances in recent weeks in which demonstrators in different parts of the region have attacked the houses of policemen. “It has not been rampant but in certain instances our houses have become soft targets. Our families have nothing do with our jobs, but who will tell these mobs,” a senior police official based in south Kashmir, told Firstpost. The house of Muhammad Ashraf Pual, a police officer in-charge of a police post in Sangam area of south Kashmir, was attacked by protesters at Chandrigam area of Tral. Although, Paul was not present during the attack, his wife and daughter fainted and were later shifted to hospital. Protesters had alleged that Paul was harassing people near his post, but he denied the charges. “They broke windowpanes of my house and my wife fainted, after some miscreants diverted a protest rally towards our home in Tral,” Paul told Firstpost, on Sunday. Early in July, father of an SHO in Kulgam, was forced by the public to tender a public apology over his son’s “misconduct”. During the early days of unrest, demonstrators at Ashmuqam, near the tourist destination of Pahalgam, attacked the residence of SDPO and later set it on fire. A police driver, Feroz Ahmad, was also killed after a mob pushed his mobile bunker vehicle into river Jhelum at Sangam in Anantnag district.