Srinagar- The newly appointed Director General of Police (DGP) RR Swain on Saturday called for a joint effort of police, parents, religious figures and all social institutions to put an end to the terror recruitment and save precious lives of youth from death and destruction.
Talking to reporters after conducting his first-ever public grievance meeting at the Police Headquarters here, Swain pledged to launch an all-out war against the people who push innocent youth into terror folds and use them as cannon fodder.
“With community effort, we will be able to save a lot of lives. If a youth joins terror ranks, we would like to meet his parents, visit his school and meet his teacher and headmaster. We would also meet the prayer leader of a Masjid where this boy would pray. This is not only the job of the police but all of us,” he said.
“They are our own people. We have to view them differently. So, our sustained effort will be to ensure to cut-off the handlers sitting across the fence,” he added.
The DGP expressed optimism that with community effort, the recruitment of local youth will considerably fall leading to no more violent incidents and no further recruitment.
Serving a strong warning to the people who instigate youth to join terror ranks, the DGP said that there’s a need to fight a war with them in a planned and sustained manner. Police, he said, are committed to fight this war.
“Why should a boy from a poor household become cannon fodder? Each act of recruitment will be treated as an act of terror. People who decide to help or facilitate a youngster to join the terrorist ranks will be equally liable, if not more. There will be sustained action against the people who motivate and recruit,” he said
He also cautioned the people who ‘write differently to encourage’ terror recruitment in the Valley of action.
“Even the people who write very differently are liable for encouraging recruitment. We will also act against them. Those who instigate people under the garb of freedom and expression will face action,” he said.
He also advised parents to keep monitoring their wards and check their phones regularly to find out if he is not caught in the terror trap.
In a veiled attack on Pakistan, the DGP said that the neighboring country was poisoning the people of Kashmir with continued supply of narcotics like brown sugar, heroin and cocaine. However, he quickly added that police will not hesitate to take strictest action against those, including the personnel from police or security establishment, or anyone from the society, who facilitate and promote narco trade.
“Earlier, charas was being sold locally. However, it wasn’t that harmful. Now poison is being pushed into Kashmir in the form of brown sugar, heroin and cocaine. That poison is being sold and people are being killed,” he said.
He also vowed to break the backbone of narco-traders who have raised big mansions and are travelling in big cars with the money earned from drug dealing.
“And while acting against such people, we will not back out. People who think that they have built big houses, have bought cars with this money will not go scot free. We will go after them. For now, we will not focus on peddlers or small-time retailers; we will go after those wholesale dealers who have made crores,” he said.
Earlier, the DGP said that the maiden public grievance meeting was a new effort aimed to build connection with the people. The public darbar, he said, won’t have a solution to all issues but the issues within the domain of the police department, he said, will be resolved.
He said the grievances redressal mechanism will have a regular follow-up and the complainants will remain well informed about the status of their cases.
Pertinently, the DGP had announced last week to hold two-hour public grievance meetings on two Saturdays of every month in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu.
For me too, it is an experiment. It has a message value. I will also remain aware of what kind of things affect police administration, including different categories of grievances and complaints,” Swain added.
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