KL Report
SRINAGAR
The Director General of Police (DGP) Mr Ashok Prasad Friday said that for the security forces the challenges ahead of polls in Jammu and Kashmir are the same but there will be huge requirements to manage and maintain the security in assembly polls in the state.
“The security challenges are same for us. There will be attempts to boycott the elections and attempts to disrupt these elections. We are preparing our plans and we aim at zero causality in elections,” the DGP said while talking to KNS.
However, he added, there is a huge security requirement in assembly elections but whatever is to be done will have to be managed within the available resources of the department. “It is up to the authorities and Election Commission of India to prioritize things and we expect they will give us highest priority keeping in view our security requirements to meet the challenges.”
Mr Prasad said that attacks on police personnel since last year have increased by 100 per cent and the attacks on civilians have come down by almost 50 per cent. “This is the matter of concern for us. Last year there were 22 attacks on civilians and the same was reduced to 16 this year. However, the number of attacks on police last year was 11 which has increased to 25 this year. This is a concern for us and it is not random but being done under a deliberate plan from the other side of the border. It is not difficult to control this situation but the same will cause inconvenience to people which we don’t want to,” Mr Prasad told KNS.
He informed that there is no militant presence in Jammu region but the police has reports that seven to eight militants have entered and they are roaming in Rajouri and Poonch areas. “We are on it and we are tracking them down.”
Asked about reason behind the restrictions being imposed on Syed Ali Geelani to visit Tral to attend a public meet, the DGP said that constitution guarantees freedom to go anywhere but the same constitution says imposes certain reasonable restrictions.
“If your public meet is likely to result in breach of public peace then how can be that allowed under law. Mr Togadia was prevented from delivering a speech in Jammu in view of its repercussions on public peace.”
Mr Prasad added: “Mr Artun Jaitley the member parliament was stopped from visiting Kishtwar and he had every right to visit the place but we were unable to provide him security and we were very apprehensive that it will create problems. When Mr Jaitley was prevented to visit the place despite being an MP who is Geelani? He is not an elected representative. Wherever he goes he legalizes stone pelting, use of gun and other things. How can that be allowed under law. We stopped people from NC, PDP and Congress from visiting Kishtwar and it is not that we apply law to a single person,” he asked.
Regarding reports about government of Argentina having secretly probed the presence of mass graves in Kashmir, the DGP said the veracity of the reports needs to be inquired into thoroughly.
“This is a matter which needs to be inquired and nobody knows the details except for what has been published in a local daily that too wherefrom it has lifted the issue. The issue is whether reporting about mass graves in Kashmir is based on facts? This is an effort to try to bring other players into the game. Is there a mass grave in Kashmir? Mass graves and unmarked graves are two distinct things. Unmarked graves is a normal thing in Kashmir but some people want to create an issue out of this. A mass grave is where you burry a large number of bodies together in a single large grave and the concept came from world wars. To the best of my knowledge the largest mass grave here consists of six people who were drowned militants who had infiltrated this side of the border,” he added.
Mr Prasad said: “Show us a single grave where the body of a person who got killed was not investigated and the body handed over to Auqaf for burial. Then which mass graves they are talking about. In most of the cases there is an FIR and after investigations the bodies have been handed over to Auqaf committees for burial. Raking up these issues, some people want to create of a sense uncertainty in Kashmir.”
