Large number of militants waiting at border: Police chief
Vijaypur: A large number of heavily-armed militants are waiting across the Line of Control and the International Border for an opportunity to sneak into the state, Jammu and Kashmir police chief S P Vaid said today.
The state director general of police, however, added that the Army and the Border Security Force personnel are keeping a tight vigil on the borders and have been largely successful to scuttle their attempts to infiltrate into the state.
Vaid also said a big campaign was underway on social media from Pakistan to trick youths into militancy on the basis of false propaganda but the police have taken effective measures to counter it and have managed to block many such accounts.
Talking to media persons after attestation-cum-passing out parade of 215 recruits at the Police Technical Training Institute here, Vaid said the intelligence reports suggest a huge presence of heavily-armed militants on launching pads across the LoC and the IB, awaiting an opportunity to sneak into the state.
“Our BSF and Army personnel, however, are fully alert to the challenge and it is because of their efforts that the terrorists are unable to succeed in their designs,” he said.
He said the militants’ attempts are being successfully foiled by the security forces but “sometimes some of them do manage to infiltrate”.
Addressing the recruits earlier after inspecting the parade and taking salute at the march past, Vaid said, “Our neighbouring country has launched a major campaign on social media to lure youths into terrorism and violence through wrong information.”
“We have taken measures to cover it and, accordingly, media cells have been created at the range, district and zonal levels. We have opened 26 Facebook pages at district level, 189 at police station and zonal levels and 31 twitter handles and have occupied the social media space to counter the malicious campaign,” the DGP said.
He said many accounts feeding wrong information to mislead the youths have been successfully blocked.
Asked about the reports of local militants giving up violence, he said, “It is good that the local boys are giving up the path of terrorism and returning to mainstream on appeals of their families. They are saving not only themselves and their families but are also saving the people of Kashmir from terrorism”.
Vaid said the police also countered the rumours about Article 35A through social media yesterday which helped in stopping the agitation.
The protests and clashes rocked different parts of the Kashmir valley recently after rumours spread that the Supreme Court has scrapped the Article 35A of the Constitution which guarantees special privileges and rights to the people of the state.
On the separatists’ call for a two-day strike in support of the Article 35A on August 30 and 31, he said, “We will deal with it effectively as we have been doing.”
The separatists and civil societies have launched a drive to retain the constitutional provision, the validity of which has been challenged in the Supreme court by an NGO.
On the sudden spurt of attacks on policemen, Vaid said various steps have been taken to ensure safety of the policemen during their visits to their families.
“Last time when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the state and met the police personnel at Anantnag police lines (in south Kashmir), we made a request to him to sanction residential quarters for the cops and he asked us to submit a proposal,” he said.
The DGP said the proposal has been submitted to the Union Home Ministry through the state government for construction of 5000 quarters for policemen.
“It is under consideration of the government and we are hopeful that it will be sanctioned,” he added.
On the sanction of two battalions to help people living within 10 kms of the LoC and the IB, Vaid said the state government has given its approval and a board was being set up for making recruitment shortly.
Vaid said the police are also formulating a scheme for the special police officers (SPO) who have served the force for the last two decades. “We have taken up the matter with the government and I am hopeful of a positive response”.
