The comments came two days after three civilians were killed during a gunfight in central Kashmir’s Budgam district when security forces battling militants opened fire on a group of stone-pelting protesters. The crowd was allegedly trying to help a militant escape but the man was killed.
“In the encounter even security forces and police take cover of a bulletproof vehicle or a house. Youths coming to the encounter sites are committing suicide,” director general of police SP Vaid told reporters in Srinagar.
Protesters rushing to gun-battle sites and attacking security forces is a growing concern in the border state.
Vaid appealed to the youngsters not to remain indoors and not be misled.
“A bullet does not know whom it will hit. My appeal to all the young boys is that they should remain in their homes. The youth must understand that they are being used by people for their short-term political gains,” he said.
“In spite of great provocation, we have been able to minimise collateral damage and civilian casualties.”
This year, several civilian deaths have been reported during gun battles between militants and security forces.
Army chief Bipin Rawat had in February warned of tough action against those attacking security forces during anti-militancy operations.
The state government has declared three-kilometre area around an encounter site as a no-go zone in Srinagar, Budgam and Shopian districts.
Enemies of the country were misusing social media to instigate the youths, the DGP said.
Around 300 WhatsApp groups, with more than 250 members each, and other social networking websites such as Facebook get activated the moment a gunfight breaks out, Vaid said.
Young boys are told to reach the site and throw stones to help terrorists escape.
Police were monitoring the accounts, some of which were traced to across the border, the DGP said.
A 15-year-old boy Amir Nazir was killed on March 10 when he sneaked close to a spot where security forces and militants were exchanging fire in Pulwama. Police said Nazir was part of a mob pelting stones when a bullet hit him in the neck.
The Muslim-majority Valley has been in turmoil for almost a year after violent clashes broke out over the killing of a militant last July.
The violence left more than 90 people dead and thousands injured – many of them blinded by pellet gun
Meanwhile Director General of Police (DGP), Dr. S. P. Vaid has expressed satisfaction over the security arrangements put in place by security agencies in connection with Prime Minister’s visit to Udhampur on April 2.
He stressed on maintaining close coordination among the security agencies to ensure incident free visit of the Prime Minister.
Dr. Vaid was chairing a high level meeting here at Police Headquarters (PHQ) this after-noon convened to review security arrangements for PM visit. The meeting was attended by senior officers from JKP, Para-military forces, Intelligence and Civil administration.
The DGP stressed upon the officers to sound alertness in the border areas and ensure round the clock patrolling.
He asked them to raise vigil at vital installations including airport, railway stations and high ways by continuous surveillance. He said that area in and around the venue of public meeting should also be highly sanitized leaving no opportunity for the inimical elements. “With the cooperation of people, all the arrangements made for the visit shall be ensured fruitful’ he asserted. Traffic plan was also discussed in the meeting and it was decided that common people should not be put to any inconvenience due to the arrangements made for the VIP visit.
The meeting reviewed and discussed the security grid with all the officers related with the visit including senior officers from Police, CRPF, BSF and Intelligence agencies. They informed the meeting that all necessary arrangements have been put in place well in advance.
They said that proper briefing has been made to all men and officers deployed on duty at different locations. “Intelligence grid has also been activated to gather the information about the activities of inimical elements and the inputs are discussed with other sister agencies” the meeting was informed.
The DGP emphasised upon close coordination among various agencies to ensure the smooth and successful visit of Prime Minister. He said that the intelligence inputs should be shared and discussed with each other and all preventive measures be taken collectively to foil ill-designs of anti-national elements. He stressed for conducting a rehearsal in advance to make the arrangements fool proof. He said that all requirements projected by various agencies related with the visit have been fulfilled.
Among others, the meeting was attended by ADsGP, VK Singh, Dilbag Singh and L. Mohanti, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Pawan Kotwal, IsGP, AG Mir, Dr. SD Singh, Sunil Kumar, Jagjit Kumar, SK Gupta and JP Singh, IG CRPF, IG BSF, Commissioner North Zone SB, DD IB, DsIGP, AA Wani and Hilal Ahmed Shah, SSsP, Sunil Kumar, Amit Kumar, Tejinder Singh, Ashok Sharma, Joginder Singh, District SSsP of Jammu, Zone and other police officers.
