Author: M Saleem Pandit
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 3, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Browbeaten-cops-join-JK-protesters/articleshow/6249887.cms
The extent of frustration in the J&K police
became glaringly evident when a posse of them were shoved and browbeaten into
joining protesters on Sunday. They were then impelled to raise pro-azadi slogans
in Anantnag, even as at least one mosque in Sopore blared, egging the cops
to join the agitation or face social boycott.
The policemen were from Sherbagh police station
of Anantnag and were forced to teem out after a mob was about to attack. Protesters
also targeted members of the special operations group (SOG) of the police.
A band of youngsters on Saturday struck an SOG camp at Kreeri in Pattan besides
setting the police station there aflame.
With rioters attacking police stations and
forcing cops to join them in the azadi movement - actively following the Hurriyat
Conference's disobedience movement - local observers recalled that the last
time such scenes were witnessed on the Kashmiri mainstreet was in April 1992,
when a police DGP was held hostage by a mob to force the cops to toe the separatist
agenda.
In last two days, four police stations have
been attacked out of which one in Pulwama blew up when the fire triggered
by arsonists reached the store room where explosives recovered from terrorists
were kept.
The helplessness of the police has been underlined
with mobs repeatedly snatching weapons from the policemen. A huge mob of about
1,000 people tried to set the Soura police station and the police post in
Urdu Bazar on fire on Sunday evening. The Karannagar police station was also
attacked, the reports said.
A police officer said that they had strict
instructions not to use force against the protesters which encouraged the
troublemakers to attack police stations leading to complete demoralization
of the police.
