Srinagar, Nov 19: Following the introspection of 2010 summer unrest in the valley, Jammu and Kashmir Police has initiated training sessions for its force for dealing with law and order breakdown.
The training program is part of the Standard Operating Procedure regarding dispersal of protestors and maintenance of law and order in the backdrop of massive protests last year. An order issued by Inspector General of Police states that one-week joint training capsule has been designed for Police and paramilitary CRPF to deal with law and order situation.
The module structure has been designed for both indoor and outdoor exercises. The training schedule included classroom exercises for sensitization on need to use minimum force, brainstorming sessions, legal provisions in dispersing the assembly of people and case study.
The outdoor activities include mock drills on throwing tear smoke shells, lathicharge, firing practice of rubber bullets, pellet and pump gun. It also includes demo on stone pelting and counter drill to train policeman to foil such situation on ground.
Around 115 civilians had fallen to bullets of police and CRPF in 2010. Scores of youth were detained while several hundreds got injured. The contingents of Police and CRPF responded to stone throwing and protests by firing tear smoke canisters and bullets, which often proved lethal.
Since then Police has examined the situation which led to sequence of protests last year.
“To stop casualties, proper training of non lethal weapons is required. The posse of policeman prior to deployment should be briefed for understanding the gravity of the situation,” the SOP reads.
Commenting over the issue, Inspector General of Police SM Sahai told Greater Kashmir that the exercise is aimed to avoid any casualty in the protests.
“The number of casualties due to law and order situation in 2010 was higher. The training program will improve skill to avoid any causality,” he said.
“It is part of SOP so as to deal with the situation. Police and CRPF are doing the exercise together and we have better coordination on the ground,” Sahai told this newspaper.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 IST