Four of five martyrs were unarmed

The sombre mood at the wreath laying ceremony of CRPF jawans who were martyred in Wednesday’s fidayeen attack turned sour on Thursday when chief minister Omar Abdullah skipped the solemn occasion at district police lines in Srinagar.

Although, Abdullah sought to correct his mistake by laying wreaths on the body bags just before they were to be flown to their native places for last rites, the damage had already been done.  Visibly upset at the “who cares” attitude of the J&K government, CRPF soldiers spoke their heart out once the main wreath laying function was over. Even showering of praises on his men by director general of CRPF Pranav Sahay, who had flown to Srinagar from Delhi, could do little to soothe  feeling of hurt and being orphaned in a far away place.

“Five of our colleagues were martyred. The least the CM and other officials could have done was to share our grief by offering condolences. If a civilian gets killed they go to their homes. We lost five of our colleagues, but our lives do not matter,” said a CRPF jawan present at the ceremony.

Another jawan lamented that not carrying weapons during law and order (LO) duties makes them vulnerable. “We are being deployed in LO duties without weapons. The five jawans who were killed were unarmed. We are equipped with lathis,” he said.

Inspector general of CRPF, Kashmir VS Yadav conceded that only one of the five martyred soldiers was carrying weapon while four had only lathis.  “There are three components of CRPF deployment. One-third of them carry weapons, one third carry lathis and rest carry riot gear with non lethal weapons to avoid casualties during protests,” Yadav told DNA.

Majority of the policemen and CRPF jawans deployed for law and order duties are not allowed to carry the firearms. Most of them are carrying lathis and non lethal weapons to avoid any casualty while dealing with the mob. Only few are allowed to carry weapons.

Meanwhile, amid demands for giving it more weapons, CRPF has said it will adhere to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by Union home ministry under which only one-third of the deployed force will be armed.

CRPF DG Pranay Sahay, who attended a high-level meeting chaired by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday night in Srinagar agreed that there will be no change in the deployment rules for the para-military force, official sources said.

@ishfaq72