This refers to former bureaucrat  Mahmood-ur-Rehman’s letter (Greater Kashmir July 25th). While responding to certain observations made in a story published in Times of India earlier, stated that the April 1992 standoff at the Srinagar Police Control Room “was settled amicably without any extraneous interference with empathic interaction of 2 to 3 hours.”
 Without seeking to endorse or deny the contents of the ToI story or question Mr. Mahmood’s right to stand up for himself or the J&K police, I would like to know what does he mean by saying that the crisis was resolved “without any extraneous interference”. Is he seeking to deny the fact that army’s help was requisitioned to quell what appeared to be was mutiny by sections of local policemen? I covered the story for The Telegraph, Reuters and also the BBC. Though I like most other Srinagar-based journalists was denied access to the PCR while Mr. Rahman and other senior officials were trying to pacify the defiant policemen and, therefore, can’t claim to be witnesses to any hostage drama, we did see army soldiers marching into the besieged premises. What for? Perhaps, Mr. Rahman is in a better position to tell us. He may also explain why the government chose to maintain silence then and did not react to media reports which had suggested the defiant policemen took some of their senior officers as hostages before they were disarmed.
Yusuf Jameel
yusufjameel@gmail.com

Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
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