Leaving behind fear, hundreds of people held a rare protest on Wednesday against the shifting of a Rashtriya Rifles (RR) camp from the remote Gadbad village in the border district of Kupwara.
For those who champion the cause of demilitarisation, this should be an eye-opener.
Leaving behind fear, hundreds of people held a rare protest on Wednesday against the shifting of a Rashtriya Rifles (RR) camp from the remote Gadbad village in the border district of Kupwara.
Lieutenant Colonel JS Brar, the defence spokesman in Srinagar, said the protesters blocked roads leading out of the camp in Lolab valley. They also petitioned senior RR officers not to shift the camp, he said.
“The army has protected us from militant excesses. We do not want the dark days to return. We will approach the highest authority to stop the shifting,” 75-year-old Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh was quoted as saying. Sheikh’s two daughters were killed by militants in the late nineties.
About 120 km north of Srinagar, the serene Lolab valley was once a hotbed of militancy with several top ultras operating from the area. But the army eliminated dozens of senior militant leaders in the jungles, Brar said, adding, “The Rashtriya Rifles camps in the area have created a sense of security among locals.”
He said the readjustment of troops in active counter-insurgency operations was a dynamic and ongoing process. “However, this [protest] is heartening. Senior officers are aware of the matter, the security grid will not be affected,” the spokesman said.
Separatists, however, dismissed the pro-army protest as “propaganda warfare”.
“Kashmiris are not cowards that they will seek protection from the army. There is no truth in the claims made by the army,” Ayaz Akbar, spokesman for the Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, said.
In the past one year, over 35,000 troops have been withdrawn from Jammu and Kashmir. These include jawans of 39 Mountain Division based in Jammu’s Rajouri, a battalion of 33 RR comprising about 1,000 personnel based in Vilgam area of
Handwara in north Kashmir and 1,000 men of 49 RR based in Qazigund area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir.
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