The buzzwords from news channels, top politicians and high ranking officials reads restraint, standard operating procedure and crowd control mechanisms but on ground, it is the opposite. Police and forces read shoot to kill, aim bullets on vital organs, burst tear gas shells on the heads, snatch the lives of unarmed people, beat to pulp and so on. In valley no person is ready to buy the hollow statements of seasoned politicians who have no control over their security agencies and give vague explanations to shield the culprits. In reality, no cop has ever been convicted for murdering a common man in Kashmir. Killers of small children in pre-2011 unrest are still enjoying their lavish lives and till date no action has been taken against them. A common cop holding a lethal weapon rightly thinks whos going to touch him even if I kills thousands. Perhaps he is absolutely right. No one in Kashmir is going to touch any cop; they have a super immunity and indeed no court has power to convict them. What a mindset.
If we analyse the crowd control mechanisms outside the valley we see a 360 degree shift. Police there does aerial firing not target killing, they spray colored water not copper bullets. They dont touch ambulances, never do they harass women. Here every action taken by police and forces begs for explanation. How can police beat civilians in a central hospital? How can they damage emergency service vehicles ferrying injured civilians? This is the height of intolerance.
Authorities say people should not take law into their own hands and yet their police makes mockery of the same law. We fail to understand who has given police authority to shoot to kill, who has given them free hand to bleed our people, where they get orders to fatally injure unarmed civilians? If people want to vent their anger they have every right to do so.
Government never educates cops. Cops should know that their all expenses including salary come from our tax payments; cops are there to protect us and not to kill or injure us. The moment any cop in the valley is allocated a lethal weapon for protection of lives, he assumes that he has got all the power of the universe and can do whatever he wants, exactly like ancient Pharaoh.
Ministers in power say that ‘we appeal cops to exercise maximum restraint’, why they have to appeal at first? Why cant they make it mandatory to follow SOPs of crowd control and make forces accountable for their actions?, Why cant they train them for this particular niche task, why cant they procure non-lethal weapons, is it so difficult? What are authorities doing in AC rooms? Why are not they reaching to people? Why are they shying away? Is this so called governance?.
Be it any ruling party in J&K, they have never implemented any good strategy because our politicians never understand the science of sympathy and fundamentals of management nor have their fat Babus tried to digest the facts and come up with better policies and people management mechanisms. This is not controlling the disarray of JCRB flyover or managing the chaos in the departments. This is not any corruption related issue, But this is the question of human lives. It is high time to introspect and get management principles embedded into governance and policing so that there is n o further loss of lives.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
