The Jammu and Kashmir Police is all set to include over 150 bulletproof gypsies in its fleet, a step taken after increasing attacks on the government forces, a police official said today.
In this regard, the police had floated a notice last week inviting tender for fabrication of the vehicles into bullet resistant vehicles (BRVs) to arm officers, cops and moving patrol teams against the militant attacks.
The Centre has already announced Rs 500 crores for the modernization of J&K Police under Prime Minister Development Programme.
“J&K government hereby invited reputed and registered manufacturers of fabrication of bullet resistant vehicles to unarmour 154 gypsies with protection against 7.62mmX39mm (AK-47) without run flat system”, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Provisions, Mubassir Latifi, said.
A lot of things are being procured to modernize the police force after recent attacks on policemen by militants. The Ministry of Home Affairs was kind enough to take swift action and sanctioned the bullet proof vehicles for almost all police stations and senior officers, Director General of Police (DGP) J&K, S P Vaid, said.
The underbelly of vehicles shall be protected against the blasts of two hand grenades of HE-36 intensity, the AIG said, adding the bullet resistant material and bullet resistant glasses to be used shall withstand the required protection levels as laid down in the test direction of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
In militant attacks in the state, as many as 72 civilians and 201 forces’ personnel were killed during 2015-17, the officer said.
In 2018, there were 28 incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir in which four forces’ personnel and eight militants were killed, he said.