Army men thrash J&K cops: Unaccountable power leads to abuse

Even though the General officer Commanding (GoC) of Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt General J S Sandhu, on Sunday said that the Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police work like brothers-in-arms and blamed some “anti-national elements” for “creating a wedge” between the two, independent observers hold an altogether different opinion on the issue.

Reacting to the incident on Saturday—in which soldiers of 24 RR unit allegedly vandalised the Gund police station in Ganderbal district and thrashed cops, leaving at least six policemen injured, two of them seriously — many in Kashmir Valley point out that the recent incident was symptomatic of the larger issue of power abuse by the Army.

Pointing towards the impunity enjoyed by armed forces, independent Kashmir observers note that such incidents have a direct bearing on Centre-State relations and bring the issues of human rights abuse by armed forces back into focus. “Incidents like these further weaken Center-State relationship. They demonstrate how Army operates in Kashmir behind the smokescreen of draconian laws like Disturbed Area act and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)” says, Shahnaz Ahmad Mantoo, a Srinagar-based political analyst.

Such an incident, according to observers, hasn’t taken place for the first time in the Kashmir Valley. “Army, over the past 27 years of turmoil, have many a times run riot not even sparing senior politicians and bureaucrats,” an observer says. “During the 90’s when insurgency was at its peak, such incidents were a part of public life here,” he says, recalling how in the mid-90’s, a National Conference minister representing south Kashmir’s Pulwama constituency was beaten to pulp in Srinagar’s high security Badami Bagh area along with his security officers provided by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

“In 2016 summer unrest, several clashes took place between Army and police in deep pockets of South Kashmir. But the clashes somehow went unreported,” maintains a DSP rank police officer wishing not to be quoted. “Such a brazen disregard for cops on duty demonstrates how Army men drunk on power—thanks to AFSPA—treat common masses and democratic institutions in Kashmir.”

Pertinently, in September 2013, a section of the media had reported how Army Chief General VK Singh set up a secret Intelligence unit and misused secret funds in a purported attempt to topple the then popular state government.

A retired secretary-rank government officer confides how he too has been a victim of Army's highhandedness. He remembers bitterly that he along with his personal security guard were thrashed by some Army men a few years ago when he tried to stop them from beating up an elderly man in North Kashmir. “Such incidents demonstrate how military exercises unbridled powers without accountability in conflict zones,” he concludes, before adding that, “soldiers of a professional Army don’t act the way soldiers in civvies did in Ganderbal. Ideally, they should have cooperated with the cops performing their duty at the security check-point.”

“It makes up a case that human rights watchdogs can entertain as the cops are also humans and have the same rights as any other person. The matter can further worsen the relation between armed forces and police in the state and lead to a dysfunctional relation instead of cooperation and coordination…,” comments an editorial in today’s edition of Rising Kashmir, a leading local daily of the state, adding that “The ball is in the court of Army as many cops would be keenly watching how the issues are finally settled.”

MLA Langate Engineer Rashid stresses that the incident again proves “how the Indian State looks at every Kashmiri as its enemy”.

The incident has elicited strong reactions from both mainstream and separatist leaders. Former Chief Minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah took to twitter to comment on the issue.

Separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq remarked that even those Kashmiris who aid “state oppression” were not spared.

Similarly, common netizens from Kashmir Valley minced no words to deride the incident. Mir Zeeshan Rashid, a student, wrote a sarcastic comment on twitter that the police had got a dose of its own medicine.