Rajan Gandhi
Another barbaric-cowardly Pulwama attack not only caused country wide shock but severe rumblings at Jammu also. Spontaneous bandh of Jammu, very next day, was a testimony that public anger was at boiling point and the closure of all four bridges connecting old Jammu City with the other part of the city resulted in complete lockdown of the old city. Such was the ferocity of youth anger that for whole day public was on foot crossing bridge, going from one place to other on foot. Youth confronting motorists and two wheeler owners with no let up. Police though deployed remained mute spectator not intervening at even a single place with the result emboldened youth walked to Muslim dominated areas to have direct confrontation with them as if whole Muslim community was involved in the attack. In this mob fury several vehicles were torched, anti national slogans raised by few miscreants, boiling water poured and Jammu police was caught off guard once again. Was it an intelligence failure or was it a deliberate mute spectator approach by Jammu police or our present in charge of Jammu police are too clueless to evolve any strategy to predict and evolve counter strategy? What was the role of civil administration which too remained mum till afternoon when things turned out of hands and ultimately curfew was clamped in the whole city? This curfew lasted for six days with almost five days without break at some places, along with this moving Government employees demanding immediate repatriation to Kashmir but the most amusing part was two hour curfew relaxation to be extended again for two hours and then again for two hours and on and on. Practically it meant for the whole day Jammu civil administration was only issuing orders for curfew relaxation and by the time first order reached to forces on the ground second was ready to be issued. Such was the situation that one order was for curfew relaxation from 8 am to 2 pm and schools to function normally just forgetting it was winter timings of 10 am to 4 pm to be followed by schools and as such schools could not be opened. Another tool which administration always uses is banning mobile internet on the pretext of blocking misleading information but with papers scheduled along with age of online transaction whole system came to a grinding halt in this digital age. But who cares? Why was the situation made to go out of hand, who tied the hands of police? Has any officer been held accountable and responsible for causing this chaos? If the answer is no then it’s really disappointing and Jammu paid the price again in the shape of Jammu bus stand grenade attack where once again Jammu police was caught napping. Second attack in a short span on bus stand is really something to be answered. Why BC Road has not been cleared of the traffic mess till date? Who is stopping police to remove illegal encroachments all along city? There is no answer to all these questions but it has left a big question mark on Jammu’s security during elections.
Though Jammu police claimed to have cracked the case within 24 hours but still how a sixteen year old can come and strike in the heart of city and escape the scene. His nabbing was possible only due to CCTV footage of shops which gave police vital clues and police was ultimately able to apprehend the culprit. What about security cameras at vital places by police? Isn’t it duty of police to protect citizens or is it vice versa? Brand new cars of showrooms carry passengers from bus stand to almost all state cities early in the morning, a grave security risk as even with CCTV footage vehicle without number plate cannot be traced or in case of accident passengers will get no insurance claim. Where are police nakkas, has any police verification being done at Jammu City at all or is the job of police is to only collect weekly from encroachers and transporters and public paying the price in the shape of two causalities and scores injured. But again who cares? Most amusing is the fact within minutes of grenade attack not only whole BC road got cleared of encroachers but the entire city got cleaned of illegal roadside vendors as every SHO was seen busy clearing mess from his respective area but the situation of chaos returned the subsequent day. There is no security camera installed anywhere in the old city bazaars, no armed police personnel is deployed in any market and raised pickets placed at different points like Parade, Purani Mandi and many other places just add to traffic chaos instead of serving the purpose for which they were placed there. No police verification is being done in the whole old city with all main bazaars having tenants from outside the state and scores of PG operating all over the city along with hotels.
This is one aspect of the J&K Police story but the deeper one goes, more skeletons get out tumbling. Jhajjar Kotli episode in the past also exposed the chinks in policing as no one from police can explain how terrorists are crossing international border form Jammu side and are taken to Kashmir via national highway, all this has been going on for years together as revealed by driver and cleaner of seized truck. This cannot be done without active connivance of some locals who are well versed with terrain of border areas. More interestingly it took almost twenty four hours to trace the absconding terrorists that too when some responsible citizens informed the police after terrorists knocked at their door for food, what was police doing, why were combing operations not launched immediately as by just crossing the Jhajjar nullah, Kakrayal is there with a 2000 plus students residential university SMVDU and Narayana Hospital, was any security provided to these two institutions immediately after terrorists were spotted a day earlier or it was sheer luck that terrorists could not reach these two institutions or for that matter Katra as well which is just 15 kms from the site? Like in the past when one Jija – Saala duo overpowered the surviving terrorist, who attacked security forces convoy on national highway, from the forests, tied him and brought him down to nearest village and informed police then, public played its role again but what about our police.
All this points to only one thing that terrorists can strike at will anywhere in Jammu division, its only due to policy of terrorists to lie low in Jammu division to safeguard their own safe heavens in and around Jammu that only few incidents have taken place in Jammu. Attacks on army in Nagrota and Sunjwan are testimony to the fact that there are very much local sympathizers who are not only providing boarding and lodging but actively assisting terrorists in carrying out their subversive activities. How many modules of these have been busted and how many arrested? Failure of CID wing of J&K Police is too obvious. Image and moral of J & K Police was further dented with the arrest of Deputy Superintendent of Jammu Central Jail for recruiting terrorists. Frequent transfers of SHO’s is another factor which has to be looked into, why they are not given a fixed tenure, why capability to deliver on ground is not the criteria, why with any change of SSP triggers volley of changes at SHO level, are all these police force personnel not trustworthy or capable to be continued at their respective positions or loyalty to the new officer is the only criteria or is it case of transfer industry like in other departments? Questions are many and tough ones but policing being a challenging job with national security at stake so answers and solutions must be looked into.
Use of trucks to carry terrorists, smuggle drugs, bovine animals and what not leaves a lot of explanation to the nation from police end. Why full truck scanners are not installed at Lakhanpur or for that matter the Trade Facilitation Centres – Chakkan-Da-Bagh, Poonch and Salambad, Uri. National security agencies have already asked for same at cross LOC trade facilitation centres along with frequent shuffling of deployed staff but on both the counts J&K police has failed to implement the same which points out the will and intent of the J & K Police. Who is stopping police to establish a control room in each district, install CCTVs at the strategic points in the city and national highways, make the respective officer of the problematic area accountable, that’s how the workable system is developed and implemented but it seems lives of general public is of least importance and priorities are something else or otherwise concerned officers should have been penalized immediately after the incidents. Frequent loss of public lives has not moved the authorities a bit as only lip service is provided every time without any proper long term plan.
With election campaigning at its peak meaning J and K police getting additional responsibility of safeguarding rallies as well as visiting high profile politicians and on the other hand terrorists looking for soft targets it will be interesting to see how well prepared our Jammu Police will be, has any lesson been learnt from the past mistakes or will the public again pay the price of Jammu police lapses. Only time will tell.
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