For people-friendly look, army convoys in J&K to carry blue flags instead of red

In an endeavour to make cantonments and military convoys more people-friendly, Army has changed the colour of flags on its vehicles to blue from red.

Hitherto, the army vehicles used to have red flags and even the soldiers in road opening parties (RoPs) carried red flags while paving way for convoys.

The army has also asked troops carrying lathis (a bamboo stick) to only use whistles in order to stop vehicles. “The army soldiers travelling in the convoys have also been asked to behave more politely with the people during stopovers,” sources said.

The Army says these steps are being taken to make the force more people-friendly. “This is a step towards more friendly relations with aawam,” General Officer Commanding (GOC) Kilo Force, Major General H S Sahi said. “Once our vehicles move, we want there must not be any inconvenience to the people.”

“Our basic purpose is to go after militants who create disturbance. Our aim is not to cause inconvenience to the civilian population who are not indulging in arson or violence,” he added.

Sources said that in future walls around cantonments will be having pictures of young achievers from Kashmir.

In March 2019, the government had restricted the movement of civilian vehicles on Srinagar-Jammu national highway twice a week. It had cited 14 February 2019 suicide bombing of a CRPF convoy in Pulwama — which killed 40 paramilitary personnel — as the reason for restricting traffic.

However, after huge outcry the order was rescinded after one and half months.