Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Recently J&K Government prematurely transferred Budgam district’s Senior Superintendent of Police Fayaz Ahmad Lone. The officer was given a punishment posting for his alleged role in raiding printing presses of two prominent dailies of Kashmir at Rangret and Sheikhpora respectively. According to reliable sources, SSP had not ordered for the raids of his own , but instead he was given a direction by his seniors. It is said that top establishment of J&K Police was directed to seize all the newspapers being published from Srinagar during the intervening night of July 15th and 16th so as to control the anger among people who were agitating against the civilian killings aftermath of the death of Hizb Commander BurhanWani on July 7th. The SSP only followed the orders of his superiors and later on became a causality himself. As per media reports Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who is also in-charge of Home Department was not aware about the “Media Gag”and when her Government was under severe criticism about the printing press raids , she was told that it was SSP Fayaz Ahmad Lone who had ordered for the said raids. The Chief Minister immediately ordered for his transfer to an unimportant place , in-spite of the fact that Budgam police had exhibited enough restraint during the ongoing anti Government protests. It is a known fact that not a single civilian death or controversial pellet gun injury took place in district Budgam. The Government instead of lauding the role of Budgam police, made poor SSP a scapegoat for none of his fault
Between Devil & the Deep blue sea :
The maintenance of law &order for police often involves use of force towards the protagonists. Police at times have to hunt the person whom they have been protecting, to arrest the protected, to salute the rogue turned politician much to their own chagrin and they even have to kill their own people for the sake of maintaining so called Peace. On contrary to it police men are neither owned by the public as they treat them their worst enemies and at times their own officers and even political establishment disowns them. SSP Fayaz Ahmad Lone’s transfer from Budgam is one of the classic examples vis a vis this disownment. Police even have to prevent a peaceful protest and at times have to allow an ugly event reluctantly. Police are doing nothing with intent yet their intentions are doubted. The system of working within the police department lacks the response mechanism towards the ill will being propagated in public by intent or by default. The media management in police is poor and undue leverage is often taken by the media people who most of the times are kept in good humor lest they resort to police bashing. The report on police wrong doings is circulated with fervor and the trend is so fashionable that every third news item involves police. The good that police does is mostly recognized but not reported due to inefficient media coverage and no efforts are made in this regard as the department has a tendency of pocketing criticism. The anti Police attitude among Kashmiri society can be extracted from this fact that J&K Police (SOG, STF) in past was involved in many extrajudicial killings , torture and extortion as well. We have now come such a situation that the news implicating police is always taken as truth because police has such a shabby character within society. There have been a plethora of cases where police has resorted to wrong doing and gone scot free.
Conclusion :
The police subculture with its rigid regimental style of working also contributes towards lack of initiatives from the right person for the right cause. The officer willing to contribute towards alleviating the image of police either has no mandate or is looked upon as over smart. The officers who are pushing and are ingenious shall be given a clear mandate to act and their action shall be appreciated emulated and adopted as a policy. Due recognition need to be given to the officer with ideas and some mechanism for jumping the hierarchy has to be evolved. The officer at the grass root has no say or access to the final authority and anybody trying to jump the hurdles is reprimanded. The hierarchical system of top down administration need to be changed with modern management systems which follows a bottom up approach. Supreme Court’s 2006 judgment on Police Reforms have to be adopted. Police Establishment Boards and Complaints Authorities should be set up , so that there is least political interference within the police. A policeman is the strong face of the government. The attitude of police is manifestation of the attitude of government. As such police need to focus on gauging the expectations of the public,this can only be achieved with a people friendly approach. It is urged upon the Government to train J&K Police on effective “Mob Controlling” so that there are no casualties during the protests in future.
Unless J&K issue is resolved politically, the police officials have to face the public wrath , be it the angry stone throwing mob or the political establishment.
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