CRPF has fired at and killed several youngsters. But what’s the culpability of a force that’s just taking orders from the local police?
Everyday at four in the morning, a CRPF company in Srinagar’s civil lines area gets ready for a tense day ahead. By six, the road-opening party starts the sanitising exercise — scouring the roads for IEDs that may have been planted by ultras — to ensure the safe movement of the convoy. By seven, the company marches to face the stone-pelters on the streets.
For the past couple of weeks, CRPF jawans have been fighting pitched battles with stone pelters on almost a daily basis. By the time they reach their base in the evening, some have sustained injuries. But they do not complain even though there is no respite, for the next day, they are again on the streets, facing stone-pelting mobs.
“We are here to assist the civil police. For us, getting injured in stone-pelting has become a regular part of our job,” says Prabhakar Tripathi, a CRPF spokesperson.
The CRPF replaced the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2005 after the GoM (group of ministers) recommendations on a specified role for every security agency was implemented. Since then, the force has been performing the internal security duties in trouble-torn Kashmir.
Initially, a total of 77 CRPF battalions are deployed in Jammu & Kashmir, of which 62 were deployed in Kashmir alone. After nine battalions were de-inducted last year, the total strength of the CRPF in Jammu & Kashmir has come down to 68 battalions, with the majority of them are deployed in the Valley.
CRPF performs dual role of maintaining law and order and undertaking counter-insurgency operations. The CRPF companies are attached with the special operation group (SOG) of the police for counter-insurgency duties and are subordinate to the state police. But the bulk of the CRPF men are deployed in law and order duties.
“We were brought to fight the insurgency and also help the administration in law and order duties. We are subordinate to the police. Every morning, our companies report to the local police stations for further deployment,” says Tripathi.
Since the Amarnath land agitation of 2008, nearly 1,600 CRPF jawans and officers have been injured in stone-pelting incidents. Around 373 vehicles were also damaged by the stone throwers during that period in Kashmir.
And recently, after the firings on mobs that resulted in the deaths of several youth, the force has become a whipping boy in the war of words between the separatists and the state government. “There is a total absence of command in their ranks. There are black sheep within the CRPF ranks who engineer the killings of youth,” said Ali Mohammad Sagar, J&K minister for law and parliamentary affairs.
Such statements have not gone down well with the rank and file of the force. “We are here to defend the motherland. Our battalions are like a mini-India, with representation from every state. Calling us names and ignoring our sacrifices is tantamount to insulting the motherland itself,” said a CRPF soldier.
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