Jammu, February 27: In the backdrop of stone pelting incidents in the Summer Capital of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) Kuldeep Khoda said ‘men in khakhi’ are fully equipped to counter volatile situations like stone pelting, riots like situation besides agitation.
”Last year we faced a lot of problem in tackling four-month-long Kashmir unrest, but this time we are well equipped to fight the situations to maintain law and order not only in Kashmir but across the state,” Mr Khoda told reporters yesterday after reviewing the ongoing special training to J&K policemen and women at Sunjuwan on city outskirts.
The DGP said, ”About 5,000 police personnel will be trained by the end of March while so far 429 including 60 women constables are fully equipped and skilled in handling the law and order problems.” He added that five battalions would be raised exclusively to counter such situations and said, ”non-lethal techniques will be proved beneficial in manning the incidents of stone pelting, riots and agitations in a better way.” Hoping for the best, the DGP said, ”our priority is to ensure less loss to the life and the property and this was an idea behind to introduce these non-lethal technology.” Apart from training, Pump Action Gun (12 bore cartridge), Anti-Riot Gun, Gas Gun, Multi-barrel Launcher and Grenades (Air Smoke and Stun Grenades) have also been introduced to maintain law and order problems without any loss to life and property.
Over 100 people were killed in four-month-long agitation in Kashmir, last year.
-Agencies