Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 24: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) today said that its troops on law and order duty are enough equipped to deal with any militant challenge.
Inspector General of CRPF, V S Yadav told Excelsior that one third of its troops on law and order are fully equipped with the automatic weapons who can deal with any militant challenge. “For law and order duty only one automatic weapon is needed for a column of troops but they carry at least 6-7 weapons. It is enough to tackle a militant attack”, he added.
When asked about the militant attack in Bemina on March 13, the IG CRPF said that his troops were fully equipped but extra vigilance was needed to dispel that attack before causing causality. “Our troops reacted quickly and gunned down both the militants who were to carry out hit and run attack. We didn’t let them flee”, he added.
The CRPF Commander said after the Bemina attack, the alertness of its troops has been increased. “We are always alert but we are extra vigilant after the attack in which 5 CRPF men were killed and 10 others including 4 civilians were injured”, he added.
Yadav said that after the Bemina attack, CRPF across Kashmir has reviewed security of its locations, camping sites, and movement of its convoys and troops.
The IG CRPF said that CRPF was not the specific target in Bemina attack. “Jammu and Kashmir Police and Armed Police was also there in Bemina but their presence was very less”, he added. He said that the target of militants was security forces who were easily available in a nearby location in Bemina.
The CRPF Commander said: “Since the number of locations held by the CRPF is more, the force is susceptible to more attacks.”
“We have 180 companies deployed across Kashmir for law and order deployment and on normal days half of it is deployed”, said Yadav. He said that besides this CRPF is guarding offices, residences and important installations across Kashmir valley and also performs road open party duty.
On the law and order issue, the IG CRPF said that not a single killing took place since February 9 at the hands of the CRPF or Police that was on law and order duty. He said that 351 CRPF personnel were injured and 150 vehicles were damaged while tackling law and order in Kashmir.
The CRPF Commander said that despite lot of provocations by the protesters, CRPF exercised maximum restraint. “There were provocations aimed at felling into the trap but we gave proper briefing to our troops about handling such situations”, he added.
Yadav said that the collateral damage was prevented this year due to the experience the force has gained over the years in handing the law and order problem. “Besides this there has been lot of counselling and senior officers are at the spot where ever there is much disturbance during law and order problems”.
The CRPF IG gave credit to the excellent coordination between CRPF and Police during crowd control. “This has helped a lot in minimising the collateral damage”, he added.
On the increased militant activity this month in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley, the CRPF commander said that pressure got off them as handling the militancy took back seat during law and order problem. “The first preference was to normalise the situation and they got a chance to re-group as countering militancy become secondary”, he added.
“In case of normal situation bulk of CRPF will be on naka duty which will restrict militant movement”, said Yadav. He said that emotionally surcharged atmosphere during past over a month helped them. “They needed support, over ground workers, harbourers and the law and order problem must have helped them”, he added.
The IG CRPF said, of late there are increased inputs of militant movements across Kashmir and security forces are after them. He said that security forces gunned down the militant module, which attacked CRPF at Bemina and also arrested their accomplices. “The module that carried out attack on BSF at Chanpora Bypass was a separate one and security forces are working on it”, he added.
The CRPF commander said that the militants have no specific target but the security forces and Amarnath yatra and tourism doesn’t seem to be their target.
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