New Delhi, June 28: Giving a clean chit to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the central government on Monday said "unruly mobs" were behind the violence in the Kashmir Valley and asserted that the government would not cow down to the separatists' tactics.
Union home secretary G K Pillai told a news channel that the separatists were instigating violence in the Valley as the overall law and order situation in the state was improving. He said the CRPF reacted when they were attacked. "CRPF has been extremely restrained," Pillai said.
He said the situation will normalise in the Valley once the unruly mobs realise that the government is not going to cow down to the separatists' tactics. "The tension will not last for long," he added.
 Pillai tonight said people who break curfew and attack police posts cannot be termed as "innocent civilians".
 He also said chief minister Omar Abdullah was handling the situation "to the best of his ability".
 "In a place where curfew is imposed, people break curfew, go ahead and attack police posts, CRPF posts. I don't think you can call them by any stretch of imagination innocent civilians," Pillai said.
 Asked about the death of a nine-year-old boy in the latest incident of firing in Sopur, he said the person killed was a 17-year-old youth.
 "Now, the organisers of these mobs are in one way willing to put teenagers in front. I think they are to be blamed,” he said.

FORCED TO FIRE: CRPF
 Meanwhile, CRPF Monday said it was forced to open fire at a mob in Kashmir, which claimed one life, as the protestors had attacked the force’s post outside Sopur town.
 The CRPF said it had no option but to open fire to secure the post, where local police had taken shelter, from the stone-pelting mob.
 The paramilitary force in a statement said that at 12:30 pm, a mob of about 700 attacked a CRPF company location at Kapra theatre located outside Sopur town on Kupwara road.
 “The post had only the minimal strength of men for attending to camp security as the other men were away on duty. The J&K police had deployed a section of unarmed men for law and order duty at the Naka (cordon), outside the company location. Their task was to prevent the mob from entering into the town, as part of the call for Sopur Chalo. The mob attacked the J&K policemen by pelting stones. When the situation became bad, these men rushed inside the CRPF camp to take shelter. The mob pushed on, attacked the CRPF post and forcibly tried to enter the CRPF post location by scaling the compound wall,” the CRPF said.
 It said that at this juncture, sensing imminent threat of being run over, the sentry of CRPF, at the ‘morcha’ inside the post, was compelled to open fire.
 “Later, it was learnt that the bullet hit a person in the riotous mob and that he subsequently died in the hospital. He has been identified as Tajamul Islam. This was a clear case of attempt to attack the post of security force, which was foiled by timely intervention of the sentry on duty. In fact, the sentry had no option but to fire, to prevent the post being overrun,” the statement said.
 However, earlier the CRPF Director General Vikram Srivastava had denied that his men opened fire on protesters on Monday, killing two youth.
 Srivastava told had media persons here that his personnel had not fired a single bullet in any part of the valley Monday. ‘Maybe some rubber bullets might have been fired,’ he said, adding the basic duty of the CRPF is to assist the state police in maintaining law and order in the state.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST