Srinagar, Oct 7: Unable to do without curfews and raids to counter the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, the state police has evolved a new strategy to continue with the two operations: But unlike the past, without much of hype.
 Localizing of curfew to an area where protests occur –“selective curfew”, and raids in civvies –to nab protesters –are the new lines which cops have started working on.
 Greater Kashmir learnt from reliable sources that the state government recently called a high level meeting here to devise a “people friendly security policy” to kill two birds with a stone.
 “One, to avoid security measures like continued curfews, which attract hue and cry over public inconvenience. And the other, to make the operations strong enough to quell the ongoing movement,” explained a senior official in the Home department requesting not to be named.

RAIDS IN DISGUISE
 On October 5 evening, in Rawalpora area of south City, two men in civvies came walking towards local youth pretending to greet them. But the moment the youth reciprocated for handshake, the men in civvies dragged two of them towards a private vehicle and whisked them away. The locals alleged the youth have been detained at local police post on charges of stone pelting.
 Interestingly, some days back, a stone pelting accused here, nicknamed Hartal, was also caught using the same modus-operandi.
 “We had tried to nab him (Hartal) many times but every time he managed escape before our men in Khaki would catch hold of him,” said a cop.
 Finally Hartal was nabbed by cops in civvies riding an auto-rickshaw.
 “Dancing in the middle of the road after stone pelting, he was teasing the cops at a distance little knowing that the auto-rickshaw which stopped just behind him was actually after him,” recalled a senior cop posted in Shahr-e-Khaas.
 Last week, the residents of Saraf Kadal said three local youth were picked up by men in civvies riding a car. Besides, the same day, police claimed to have held Pumpcha, a stone pelting accused. “He was arrested by men in civvies near Shiraz Cinema,” the locals said.
 On October 6, as per the locals two youth were picked up from Naid Kadal while a day before that a youth was picked was picked up from Fateh Kadal, the same way.
 But it’s not that the men in civvies operate alone.
 “They are escorted by full fledged cavalcade which remains at a distance where the rescue time in case of any emergency, is mere half a minute,” said a top cop in City police.

LOCALIZED CURFEWS
 On October 5, following heavy stone pelting at Habba Kadal and some adjoining localities, curfew was imposed but only in the affected localities.
 This was unlike the past trend when the entire volatile Shahr-e-Khaas was put to the severe restrictions.
 Prior to this Humhama witnessed similar situation past week. Event though curfew was lifted from the rest of the City, the suburb locality was under curfew. Police said it was to avoid any protests.

THE GENESIS
 An official at Civil Secretariat said the members of the central team headed by the Home Minister, P Chidambaram, who past month visited Kashmir, had expressed serious concern over the continued curfews and alleged police harassment.
 “The issue got compounded by media reports over the humanitarian crisis… to counter this all we were asked to revamp our operations and make them people friendly,” said a top cop.
 The official said through “selective curfews the people in general would be benefited.”
 He said the police wants the “general masses to face minimal inconvenience”.
 “Our aim is to put common man to least inconvenience. So we’ll avoid any law and order measure which causes large scale inconvenience as was possible in clamping curfew in entire districts,” he said. 
 “Selective Curfew strategy is based on a simple reasoning: Why should everyone be made to suffer for somebody’s fault,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST