Srinagar, July 23: Unheard of in any part of the world, young men undergoing police training in various schools in Kashmir have been deployed on the streets to “assist in” handling the law and order situation.
Highly placed sources said at least 3000 trainees have been deployed in various “sensitive and non-sensitive” areas in the Valley to assist the senior cops in handling the street protests.
The trainees, from police training schools in Varmul, Ganderbal and Jammu, were lifted from the institutes one month back as “police faced shortage of manpower” to handle the “massive spontaneous protests” across the Valley.
On Friday afternoon, this reporter saw scores of young faces taking rest in the Police Control Room here while many of them were seen manning the city streets. “We are undergoing constable training right now. But one month back we were called to assist in law and order. We had to follow the directive,” a group of trainees told Greater Kashmir.
While, according to sources, the trainees were never supposed to do the law and order job during the training period, they had to be deployed in the wake of paucity of manpower. “We were never expecting this sort of a problem where you have spontaneous protests across the Valley. So young men were called in,” said a senior police officer.
Sources said the trainees, who are yet to receive their training qualification certificates, had never handled law and order so far. “They are getting this real time exposure for the first time. It has hardly ever happened in Kashmir that trainees were called in to deal with the situation, especially in the sensitive areas like Srinagar, Varmul and Islamabad,” they said.
Armed with the “riot-control equipment” including batons, teargas shells and leg-guards, the trainees have been advised not to “resort to excessive use of force, come what may.” “To deploy young blood in such circumstances can be fatally dangerous for many reasons. One, they lack experience and proper training, though they are taught handling of law and order theoretically. And two, they can lose their job if they cross a certain limit while dealing with the protesters. And then it is like young blood versus young blood on the streets. So you have more apprehensions of a collision,” the sources said. “One experienced person is better than 20 inexperienced men. These young men are yet to complete their nine-month training and you are putting them on a sensitive position.”
But if officers are to be believed, the trainees have been asked to ‘strictly’ work under guidance of senior police officers of various police stations. “They are just there to assist the senior officers and have been asked to exercise complete restraint during the street protests,” said a senior police officer, wishing not to be named. “Once the situation will be under control, the trainees shall be sent back to their schools.”
Pertinently, the riot-control equipment for these young men was pooled from various units and formations of the police.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST