Why Have Kashmir’s Militants Boosted Campaign Against the Police?

There are several reasons as to why the J&K Police have become increasingly unpopular among militants.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Arnica Kala / The Quint)

Security and intelligence agencies have noticed a remarkable increase in the militant attacks on the Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel in the current year. Even as maximum fatalities occurred during last year, after 2010, the total number of the policemen killed in encounters and attacks in the year 2017 was 33.

This included 6 irregular recruits called Special Police Officers (SPOs). As many as 26 personnel, including 6 SPOs, have been killed since 1 January 2018.

Taking Up Arms, Becoming Informers

Why exactly have the militants intensified their deadly drive against the police in J&K?

“There’s a host of reasons for it,” Director General of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Dr Shesh Paul Vaid told The Quint. “The biggest reason is the frustration, that our counterinsurgency strategies and successful operations, have created among the people across the border in PoK and Pakistan. They know it well, that this efficiency and frequency of pin-pointed crackdowns and operations on the terrorist hideouts, is not possible without human intelligence gathering, in which J&K Police is playing an important role. They are desperately out to terrorise and demoralise the police force through brutal killings. But rest assured, it’s all proving to be counterproductive for them,” the DGP asserted.

Notwithstanding the fact that several men like Ali Mohammad Dar aka Burhanuddin Hijazi switched sides from the police to guerrilla ranks when militancy in Kashmir was in its embryonic stage in 1990 — besides covert support to it from a number of officers — the State Police has been the target of militants from day one.

A number of constables and junior rank officials were labelled as ‘informers’ and ‘counterinsurgent helpers’ of security forces in 1990, and killed.

But major strikes like the killing of two officers in the entourage of the then SP Budgam, Dr Shesh Paul Vaid, in an ambush in Budgam’s Arizal area; the death of Deputy SP Shawl around Jamia Masjid; the murder of Deputy SP Hazratbal Ghulam Jeelani inside his office on 22 October 1991; a major bomb blast at DGP’s office on 25 January 1992 — and the killing of the then SP Security (Civil Secretariat) Nazir Ahmad — when he had gone to see his daughter near the Girls Hostel of Government Medical College Srinagar, on 1 October 1992 — sent shockwaves across thousands of police families.

Over 1600 J&K Police Killed Since 1989

According to the J&K Police statistics, as many as 1,655 police personnel have been killed since the outbreak of separatist militancy in 1989-90, till 25 July 2018. They include one Deputy Inspector General, one Superintendent of Police, 21 Deputy SPs, 23 Inspectors, 36 Sub Inspectors, 164 Assistant Sub Inspectors, 143 Head Constables, 186 Selection Grade Constables, 527 Constables, one Nursing Orderly, 22 Followers besides 499 SPOs and 131 Village Defence Committee (VDC) members.

“It’s not only the perception that policemen are involved in gathering information and helping security forces and the counterinsurgent wing of J&K Police in eliminating militants. In several cases, people have settled their personal scores. Some like Dy SP Shawl got killed in ‘accidental firing’. Some died during other extracurricular activities,” said a retired police officer.

He revealed how a militant, who was under pressure to do “some news-making strike”, shot dead DIG Crime and Railways Mohammad Amin Bhat outside a mosque in Srinagar on the day of Eid on 2 February 2004.

However, almost all the militant strikes after the top militant commander Burhan Wani’s death in an encounter on 8 July 2016, seem to be targeted killings. Wani had deserted his studies and become a militant after some men of the Special Operations Group (SOG), Tral area, allegedly tortured and humiliated him for no plausible reason.

Growing Anger Against J&K Police

Mehbooba Mufti’s government removed the SP of Anantnag Abdul Jabbar, and Additional DGP Shiv Murari Sahai, and sent them both to central deputation, following the encounter at Bamdoora, Kokernag. It buttressed the impression that much more than the Army and CRPF, it was the J&K Police that was responsible for killing Burhan Wani, whose death triggered an unceasing turbulence across the Valley.

With dozens of youths joining militancy and dying in encounters, the anger against the police and security forces, spiralled phenomenally in 2017.

Even as the largest number of militants (218) after 2010 was neutralised in 2017, police and security forces too suffered maximum damage in seven years, in the same year. As many as 52 soldiers and officers of the Army, 33 policemen, 5 CRPF personnel — besides two from the BSF and one from SSB — died in different guerrilla attacks.

South Kashmir’s Pulwama carries a dubious distinction. Of the 26 policemen —including 6 SPOs killed in nearly seven months in 2018 — seven were attacked and eliminated in this district. It is followed by Srinagar (6), Baramulla (4) and Anantnag (3). Two policemen each have been killed in Budgam and Kupwara, and one each in Shopian and Kulgam districts. They include four personnel who were killed in an IED blast in Sopore, and two personal security officers (PSOs) of the slain journalist Shujaat Bukhari.

Such attacks increased after the detained Pakistani Commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Naveed Jhat, escaped from custody at SMHS Hospital in Srinagar, while gunning down both his escorts in February 2018.

Kidnappings & Murders of Policemen

The kidnapping and killing of Selection Grade Constable Javed Ahmad Dar at Vehl, Shopian, on 8 July, and that of Constable Mohammad Saleem Shah at Mutalhama, Kulgam, on 20 July, has left many in the ranks traumatised.

A middle-ranking police officer, on condition of anonymity, revealed that the police and security forces have received a disturbing communication intercept twice this year. According to him, handlers of militants from Pakistan, have directed their field commanders in the Valley to eliminate all the SPOs who have been regularised into service as Constables and Followers on operational grounds. Saleem Shah was among them.

The J&K government’s counterattacks and raids on the families of prominent militants and separatists have failed to yield any desired results.

On at least three occasions since 2017, such midnight actions by masked men, believed to be working with the police, have met with frightening responses. More policemen and their families were subjected to guerrilla attacks with warning posters in the wake of this alleged police action.

Earlier in July, one of the posters, typeset and printed in Urdu, warned all SPOs in Kashmir to announce their resignation within 15 days. It was issued purportedly under the seal of the Hizbul Mujahideen Commander in Tral area, Hamaad Khan.

While claiming that the militant group was in possession of the complete list of SPOs, it alleged that most of the SPOs were providing information to the police and security forces about the movement of militants, while also encouraging Kashmiri youths to take drugs, alcohol, and indulge in social crimes.

Many of the policemen and SPOs, who spoke to The Quint, claimed that the “host of reasons for the police killings” included “wrong postings”, “low-quality arms training”, “failure of in-house surveillance”, “objectionable behaviour of officers towards subordinates”, “absenteeism”, “lack of accountability”, “vulnerability of static guards and PSOs” — besides, a difference in the monthly salaries, and post-death rehabilitation and relief between the J&K Police and paramilitary/military personnel. “It (this monetary discrepancy) has a great demoralising affect,” said a Constable.

DGP Vaid refuses to reveal the strategy adopted by police and security forces to ward off attacks on policemen and their families.

He, however, claimed that it was during his tenure that most of the remuneration anomalies were rectified, and the relief provided to policemen’s families after their death in harness or accident, had been significantly raised.

“I have got the ex-gratia relief increased from Rs 27 lakh to Rs 55 lakh for all regular ranks, and from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 17.50 lakh for SPOs. We are taking up several other measures,” the DGP told The Quint.

A group of Constables and SPOs however claimed that the DGP’s assurances and announcements were “still on paper”.

They claimed that the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India had approved a substantial increase in allowances of regular police staff, and honorarium of SPOs as long back as December 2017.

Meagre Incomes, Salary Hikes Still “On Paper”

“We are still paid not more than Rs 5,000 or Rs 6,000 a month. Nothing has been added to our honorarium,” claimed another SPO. He complained that the relief proposed for families of slain police personnel would come from the constabulary’s own monthly contributions, and the insurance premium deducted from their salaries. “What are we going to get from the government’s kitty? Nothing!” he asserted.

Director, Finance in the J&K Government’s Home Department, Tahir Hussain, said, “In December 2017, the MHA approved an increase in the ex gratia of SPOs from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. Rs 10 lakh would go from the group insurance, and Rs 2.50 lakh from the police welfare fund, for which deductions are made from the staff’s monthly salary and honorarium. Ex-gratia for regular employees from Follower to DGP has been proposed as Rs 30 lakh instead of existing Rs 7 lakh. Rs 25 lakh would be paid to such employees of police from group insurance and police welfare fund.”

Mr Hussain admitted that the J&K government had not issued necessary orders, as the file had been “shuttling between the Home Department and GAD (General Administration Department) since December 2017”.

“GAD raised some observations twice, which we have addressed. I am sure that the matter will be resolved and necessary orders will be issued in a few days,” Mr Hussain said.