National

Kashmir CRPF pullout could stumble over police shortages

Omar Abdullah

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s promise to replace the Central Reserve Police Force units with State police personnel is likely to falter in the face of force constraints, highly placed government sources have told The Hindu.

Fifty-eight battalions of the CRPF, each with approximately 1,000 personnel, are currently deployed in support of the police across the Kashmir valley. For the Jammu and Kashmir Police to make up these numbers, it will have to have increase its numbers by over 70 per cent from its current force level of 81,370 — a tough ask for a State that only this week asked for Central assistance to meet staff salaries.

Police leaders have been given 10 days by the Chief Minister to prepare a phased plan to replace the CRPF.

But government sources said the over-stretched Jammu and Kashmir Police had so far failed even to mobilise personnel to replace the estimated 1,500 CRPF personnel who were ordered back to their barracks on Tuesday. Just 143 police personnel have so far been mobilised to meet the shortfall, leaving district authorities without adequate personnel to contain the street violence that has swept Sopore and Baramulla.

Aware of the potential consequences of pulling out forces without having an alternative in place, the Jammu and Kashmir authorities have been hedging their bets. The CRPF units removed from active duty in Baramulla, State police sources said, have been ordered to remain in their barracks and not — statements from politicians notwithstanding — physically withdrawn from the district.

Elsewhere in the State, too, plans to replace the CRPF with police appear difficult to implement. In Srinagar, 22 CRPF companies — each with between 80 and 100 personnel on active duty — supplement the police on a typical day. During disturbances or visits by high-level dignitaries, that number rises to anywhere between 47 and 65 companies — numbers that simply cannot be raised by the Jammu and Kashmir Police unless adjoining districts are denuded of personnel.

One solution being considered by State authorities is for the CRPF personnel to replace the Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel currently engaged in guard and escort duties. However, government sources said, this would at most free up some police 10,000 personnel for frontline policing, well short of the numbers needed to fully replace the CRPF.

Chief Minister Abdullah’s plans to remove the CRPF from the State could also undermine plans to relieve the Indian Army of its counter-terrorism commitments — plans which had been premised on the assumption that soldiers would gradually be replaced by Central police personnel.

Earlier this month, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had announced that the government was in the process of “redrawing the lines of responsibility” between the Army, Central police organisations and the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

The remark was widely interpreted to mean that the police would be assigned primary responsibility for counter-terrorism duties and the maintenance of law and order, while the Army would have the charge of defending the Line of Control against infiltrators.

Precise figures for Indian troop deployment are a closely held secret, but highly placed government sources said the two Brigade-sized formations responsible for counter-terrorism operations in the Kashmir valley currently have an estimated 32,000 men.

Fourteen Rashtriya Rifles battalions are available to the Awantipora-based Victor Force, which is responsible for securing southern Kashmir, while Kupwara-based Kilo Force operates 18 battalions. In addition, two Rashtriya Rifles battalions are available to an infantry formation located in central Kashmir.

For the demilitarisation plans to have succeeded, these numbers would have had to be made up by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF.

Now, the future of plans for police-led security is unclear. At a meeting of the Unified Headquarters in Srinagar on Wednesday, government sources said, Mr. Abdullah called for the Army to help contain the Islamist-led rioting that broke out in several Kashmir towns this summer.

The Army, however, is deeply reluctant to intervene in civilian policing, saying it is neither trained nor equipped to manage violent protests without the use of lethal force.

Troops staged a brief flag march in Baramulla on Wednesday, but later withdrew saying the Defence Ministry had not authorised them to intervene in support of the police.

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