Can’t retaliate indiscriminately as highway witnesses huge rush of civilian vehicles: IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar
Srinagar: Special Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Zulfikar Hassan Tuesday said that appropriate measures are being taken to prevent attacks on CRPF on highways.
“CRPF being the primary force responsible for highway security are being targeted. Appropriate measures are being taken to prevent attacks on highways,” Zulfikar told news agency KINS.
Meanwhile, concerned over the growing attacks on security forces on the Kashmir highways, top security officials said that new Standard Operating Procedure (SoPs) are being framed to prevent highway attacks and it won’t be feasible to share what measures are in the pipeline given the security issues.
The officials while speaking to the Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS), said that a security review meeting was on cards soon to discuss highway attacks and to frame a SoP to prevent loss of security personnel.
“New SoPs are being framed and it won’t be feasible to divulge them at this juncture due to security reasons,” IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told KINS. He, however, said the situation was well under control and there was no need to worry.
IG CRPF for operations, Deepak Rattan said that focus of the SoPs will ensure militants don’t succeed in killing CRPF men deployed on highways as part of the Road Opening Parties (ROPs). “CRPF is primarily responsible for the RoPs and clearance of highways in Kashmir. So there will be a level of extra alertness to foil militants’ designs on highways,” he said, adding that “any retaliation by forces on highways can lead to civilian casualties, which our men are avoiding.”
Sources in the security grid said that in the next two days, a high level security review will take place in Srinagar to discuss threadbare the attacks by militants on highways and other busy areas of the region while strategy will be devised to prevent killing of security forces’ personnel if militants try to target forces.
Pertinently, yesterday, two CRPF men were killed and three others sustained bullet injuries when two-bike borne militants fired at them at Kandizaal area of Pampore in Srinagar outskirts. Before that, militants had attacked a police party on August 14 at Nowgam byepass in Srinagar killing two policemen while their rifles were also snatched. In the Pampore attack, IG CRPF said no weapon was snatched and only two “CRPF men were killed.”
According to IGP Kashmir, any retaliation to militant attacks on highways, will invite trouble for the civilians. “We don’t retaliate to militant attacks on highways as that would lead to civilian casualties. Every day, thousands of vehicles ply on highways and any retaliation from outside will lead to chaos and trouble for civilians, which we avoid. But yes, we will ensure there is no loss of security forces personnel if militants target them on highways,” the IGP said.(KINS)