Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 4: Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Prasad today dared United Jehad Council (UJC) and Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salah-ud-Din to come to Jammu and Kashmir and issue threat statements here if he had the guts. He said police was perfectly equipped to take care of his threats.
In his first media inter-action in over four months of tenure that too on the eve of 61st All India Police Hockey championship being hosted in Jammu, Mr Prasad said, in response to a media query, observed that Salah-ud-Din had been issuing statements away from Jammu and Kashmir. He should come here and issue statements of threats then we would see him, he added.
Asserting that police was perfectly equipped to take care of the threats given by the Hizbul Mujahideen chief, the state police chief said: “he is little too far from here—He is out of our reach—he should come here and issue statement (of threats).”
Additional DGP Law and Order and Armed, K Rajendra and Additional DGP Headquarters Dr Shesh Pal Vaid were also present at the press conference.
It may be mentioned here that Salah-ud-Din, who also heads the UJC in addition to his Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, has been operating from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
He had issued threats to Sarpanchs and Panchs to boycott the Panchayat elections but his threat came out a cropper yesterday.
K Rajendra Kumar, Additional DGP (Law and Order), who was seated with the DGP, quickly remarked that 96 per cent polling in yesterday’s election for four seats of MLCs by the Panchayat members was an answer to the threats of Salah-ud-Din.
To a question on whether Jammu and Kashmir Police would urge the Centre to seek extradition of Salah-ud-Din, Mr Prasad said the militant was operating from PoK, which, as per 1994 resolution of Parliament is a part of India.
“As far as his threats of violence by Salah-ud-Din and other militants were concerned, J&K Police is perfectly equipped to take care of them’’, the DGP said.
Prasad was replying to a volley of question about the threat of Syed Salah-ud-Din to trigger violence and target Panchayat members in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have taken care of it (threats) in the past —I think police would be able to maintain level of order —we had been managing it for past 4-5 years now,” he said.
As per the reports in the section of media in Jammu and Kashmir, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salah-ud-Din had last month said that New Delhi was “exploiting Panchs and Sarpanchs to project Kashmir as pro-India” and that they will “continue to be targeted no matter how much Government tries to secure them.”
Replying to another question on erection of all weather fencing in snow bound areas to ensure zero infiltration, Mr Prasad said the Government of India has been considering setting up of an expert Group of Engineers to examine feasibility of such fencing.
“Ninety per cent militants have been coming from across (the Line of Control and International Border). If there is zero infiltration from across, there will be zero militancy’’, Mr Prasad, who had mooted the idea of all weather fencing before the Ministry of Home Affairs, said.
He added that only today he had gone through media reports of floating fence being erected in Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. “If floating fence can be a possibility, why not the all weather fence?”
However, the DGP was of the view that there was nothing new in erection of all weather fences. “The fencing is already there. What we have to do is to upgrade its capacity and make it snow resistance to ensure that it was not breached or damaged during snowfall so that the militants were not in a position to take advantage of it’’, he added.
Mr Prasad said the Group of Engineers would visit the LoC and take assessment of the upgradation of the fencing to ensure that it stands the adverse weather conditions.
“The idea is to stop infiltration by the militants…ingress from the other side. The issue has been discussed on various occasions. At some places, the fencing could be upgraded while in other areas it would be relocated’’, he added.
To a question, the state police chief said they would look into some points, which remained open on the LoC and IB and could be exploited by the militants for infiltration during the winter.
“The issue of fence is one of the measures being considered both by the Union Government and the State Government in order to ensure the level of peace we have now in the State to make it a permanent feature,” Mr Prasad said.
“No matter how tough the terrain is as the fence is already there and we are not talking about building anything new,” he said, adding, “it is just to upgrade the capacity of that particular obstacle to survive the harsh weather.”
Mr Prasad said there were issues of engineering, construction, location and strategically placing of the fence.
“The idea is only to stop infiltration. The objective is purely to stop entrance of the militants from the other side,” he added.
Replying to a question on recent sectarian violence in Srinagar leading to imposition of curfew, the DGP said: “it happened every year. There was nothing new in it. We didn’t let the situation go out of control.”
He added that the sectarian violence takes place in many parts of the country when Akharas take out processions etc.
“There are emotional issues. People do get carried away. But we took stringent measures to ensure that the situation was not exploited’’, Mr Prasad said.
To a question on the number of militants waiting across the LoC and IB for infiltration, the DGP related the question with hockey championship saying: “we would score more goals than the number of militants waiting across for crossing.”
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