Srinagar, June 29: The police has found a novel tactic of dealing with stone-pelting. It wants the protesters to run short of the rock stock. So instead of throwing back the rocks, as happens most of the times, the cops Tuesday rolled out handcarts in the City centre only to take away the pelted lot. The cart convoy included the ones used by the Safai Karamcharies for sanitation work.
 It was an unusual scene at summer capital’s volatile Maisuma. Unlike the past, some of the cops were seen busy pushing handcarts only to take away the stones. Some officials of the rank of Sub-Inspectors could be seen running the carts with their juniors.
 The cart pushing operations seemed much on the lines of a war where troopers proceed in the shield of cover fire.
 Agreed a senior police official who watched it live on news channel: “It wasn’t a true cover fire like that in a war. But yes the strategy was on those lines to provide cover to the stone ferrying cops.”
 The procedure worked somewhat this way: The moment stone pelting youth swung to action, the cops resorted to baton charge and heavy teargas shelling to chase away the protesters. In the meantime, the handcart equipped cops would run towards the scattered stones.
 The cops would quickly pickup the stray stock, put them into the cart and then push it away to the Budshah Chowk, which houses a police picket. The stones were being dumped outside the picket.
 The handcarts, as per the cops on duty, didn’t belong to the police force but were brought from various quarters including the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. The rest were pushed away from a nearby footpath where some cart pushers had presumably parked them.
 Pleading the drive, the police said the “readymade availability of the stones was making the stone pelting an easy affair.”
 “There’s nothing so special about it(drive). Removing stones is just a preventive measure because otherwise they (stone pelters) find their stock easily available,” explained a senior cop.
 Police opines that removing the stray rocks from City centre places like Maisuma would help check the protests.
 “There’s hardly any construction material dumped in this busy area so the rock stock will deplete with each stone they throw,” explained a police official.
 But the masked, rock pelting youth don’t buy the police version.
 “We have plenty of resources from where we can get stones,” said a group of youth while taking a break at a Maisuma by-lane.
 Meanwhile, a man in ‘50s walked down the nearby Jhelum bank to chat with the youth. He recalled his teenage anecdote on stone pelting those days.
 “It was evening time and I was in Jawahir Nagar area with other comrades when news spread that a civilian had been killed. Protests spread like wildfire. We couldn’t find any stone to react. Finally, we came across an old, cracked wall. We pushed it and our plan worked,” said the man, requesting not to be named.
 But those days, he said, most of the rock pelting youth would hide their involvement in protests from parents.
 “That night I reached home late. When my family inquired, I pleaded having been stuck in the protests,” he recapped.
 Suddenly some hooting could be heard.  Another round of protests erupted and youth this time tried to make it towards the Budshah Chowk dump of the rocks near police picket.
 “It’s better to throw the stones into Jhelum,” some cops could be heard discussing after firing teargas canisters.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST