Policing the police

Revelations made recently by IGP Kashmir, S.M. Sahai, in a press conference make one think for a while how inept our security arrangement is. For last 18 months the police could not get at any clue about the actor or actors behind no fewer than 13 attacks conducted by the subversives on Government and non-Government functionaries in and around Srinagar city. One of the persons targeted on 11 December last year was the Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs who had a narrow escape. Without mincing words, the IGP said that it had become necessary to conduct scrutiny of the police force despite the fact that the force had been fighting the militants for last two decades. He admitted that vulnerable cops of the force could have succumbed to the overtures of militant organizations and agreed to act as underground cells for them.  Since such elements were the insiders, it was difficult to track them down, claimed the police chief.  He has revealed the bizarre background of one such policeman who, after his arrest and interrogation, revealed that he had been an accomplice of the newly formed Islamic Movement of Kashmir (IMK), and conducted about 13 militant attacks which included killing of some police officers in different parts of Srinagar city. He even claimed the recent killing of retired police Inspector in Batmaloo.
The important part of the revelations made by the IGP, Srinagar is that this cop named Abdul Rashid Shigan, a constable of the armed police and posted with the security wing, was operating under the shadow name of Omar Mukhtar and General Usman. He was acting as spokesman for Kashmir Islamic Movement, a shadow outfit of Hizbul Mujahideen. Disclosing his antecedents, the police chief said that he was a militant and enrolled in the police force after he feigned to have given up militancy. But then he revived his subversive career, renewed links with militant organizations and found an accomplice to carry forward subversion.
Though the police chief did not go beyond Shigan, but the fact is that earlier also many instances had come to light in which involvement of some cops was suspected. Militants have not infiltrated only into police force; they have penetrated other services also and most of the involved conduits remain untraced or un-exposed for various reasons. Many a time the media has also raised the issue and alerted the government about a new but dangerous culture shaping the course of events and widening the field of activity of the subversives. IGP has admitted that the militants are working on new and innovative modules. For example, they are working in very small groups of just two or three to escape detection or identification. Furthermore, it appears that their latest strategy is to target the police personnel whether on duty or off duty, and not to launch direct attack on army jawans. They also target small police stations as was the case in Sopore. This is to cow down the police force which, of late, had been galvanized into action. The big question is how to purge the services of malevolent elements, especially the police organization? Perhaps we need policing the police to make sure that the force is incorruptible.  However, being aware of the ground situation as it is, scrutiny should not remain confined to the police department only. We have just the news that the border security jawans have arrested two persons on the border in Poonch area, who were trying to cross over to the other side or planning to convey intelligence, and one of the was the naib Sarpanch.
Earlier also, a number of cases were reported of Government functionaries being picked up for their covert connections with the militants and role in facilitating militancy related activities. But we never heard that any of them has been found guilty by a court of law and convicted in accordance with the law of the land. Soft paddling with suspected elements and trying to win them over by offering them government jobs is highly counterproductive. There has to be exemplary punishment for treason. Any administration compromising with the situation would mean writing its own death warrant. Our politicians and administers ought to learn from the example of our neighbour to our west. Fraternising with fundamentalists and jihadis has brought the State of Pakistan to the brink of disaster. Police Department has taken the initiative of unfolding a serious issue that is pregnant with dire consequences if not addressed properly. Internal subversion has more often than not brought down regimes, caused administrative complicacies and distanced civil society from the governing structure. This entire phenomenon tends to weaken and disintegrate the state. There is much more in the revelations made by Police Department  than what meets the eye.

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