Situation in J-K under control, forces are on the job: CRPF Special DG

As recent targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir have sent security forces into a tizzy, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Special Director General Zulfiquar Hasan on Friday assured that "the situation is under control".

A 1988-batch West Bengal cadre Indian Police Service officer Hasan, who was promoted as Special Director General of CRPF in June this year and has extensive experience in handling terrorist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, made his observation at a time when the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has seen a sudden wave of targeted killings of civilians in recent days.

Speaking to ANI on the sideline of an event organised by the CRPF to honour bravehearts at National Police Memorial, Hasan said, "The situation is under control in Jammu and Kashmir. The CRPF and other Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) along with all the security forces are on their job in Union Territory."

In the wake of civilian killings, the security forces have stepped up their vigil in the Valley.

According to the Jammu and Kashmir police data, a total of 28 civilians have been killed by terrorists in the Valley this year. Over the past two weeks, in October alone, 11 civilians and nine Army personnel have been killed in the Kashmir valley. The targeted civilians include Kashmiri Pandits, a Sikh, and migrant labourers.

Makhan Lal Bidroo, an eminent Kashmiri Pandit, a community leader and a well-known pharmacist who refused to leave Jammu and Kashmir at the peak of militancy was brutally murdered by terrorists. School principal Satinder Kaur and teacher Deepak Chand were killed within the school premises. Harmless migrants from Bihar, who were earning an honest living in Jammu and Kashmir in a peaceful manner, were also not spared either.

A terrorist group, The Resistance Front (TRF), has claimed responsibility for these gruesome killings. The TRF has warned Kashmiri Pandits, Sikh families and migrant labourers to leave Kashmir. Owing to fear, these people have started moving out of the Valley, mainly to Jammu.

The CRPF Special DG Hasan further said the force has assembled here at National Police Memorial in memory of 10 valiant CRPF personnel martyred during patrol duty in an ambush laid by heavily armed Chinese troops in Hot Springs, Ladakh on October 21, 1959.

He said that the Force invited the family members of our bravehearts who so far sacrificed their lives on the line of duty. "All CAPFs and Central Police Organisations will organise this event one by one to honour the martyrs of their forces. We will celebrate this event every year," he said.

The event was organised a day after Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai and senior officers of various central and state police forces paid tributes at the National Police Memorial on Police Commemoration Day 2021 which is observed every year as 'Police Commemoration Day in memory of ten valiant CRPF personnel killed in the 1959 Hot Springs attack.

To honour the Police personnel who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty for National Security, the idea of setting up a National Police Memorial in Delhi was approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1992.

The Prime Minister dedicated the National Police Memorial, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, to the nation on Police Commemoration Day on October 21, 2018. The Memorial gives Police Forces a sense of national identity, pride, unity of purpose, common history and destiny.

(ANI)