<p>Jammu and Kashmir police have ordered a high-level internal probe to find out the reasons behind special police officers (SPOs) deserting with service rifles to join militancy. <br /> <br />The development comes a day after two SPOs - Shabir Ahmad and Suliman Ahmad - deserted district police lines (DPL) Pulwama to join militancy on Wednesday. Both were killed in an overnight gunfight with security forces along with two other Jaish-e-Muhammad militants next day.<br /> <br />But the incident left a lesson for the police to learn prompting the top brass to go for fresh measures to prevent it from becoming “a trend or a rebellion” in the over one lakh strong force, that has achieve a success in countering the insurgency in Kashmir since the killing of new age militant commander Burhan Wani in July 2016.<br /> <br />A senior police officer said that even though there is “proper mechanism” to keep an eye on the movement of SPOs, a few more steps will be taken to ensure “any bid by SPOs to desert their units along with service riffles is plugged completely.” <br /> <br />“Their monitoring will be increased and procedure to leave their wings or units will be made stricter,” he said and added the SPOs will have to deposit the service riffle before the in-charge of his wing and seek proper permission for visiting home or moving out of his unit or wing.<br /> <br />Sources said besides the travel movements of SPOs, their personal phones too will be kept on the surveillance to ensure that they don’t come under any militant influence or pressure to join militancy.<br /> <br />Last year SPO Adil Bashir who posted at the official residence of former PDP legislator Aijaz Mir in Srinagar, along with other Hizbul Mujahideen militants managed to decamp with seven rifles of security guards. He had later posed with a group of Hizbul militants in a photograph shared on social media.<br /> <br />In the second such incident at the official residence of Congress legislator Muhammad Muzaffar Parray, four AK-47 rifles were stolen and later the role of one of his personal security guards was established. In the wake of two major incidents, the security wing of police had ordered the withdrawal of the security cover of all the protected persons protected by the SPOs. <br /> <br />SPOs are recruited by the police on fixed monthly remuneration of Rs 12000. The wages of SPOs are given by the state government and reimbursed by the Centre under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme. The police maintain SPOs are an important element in their strategy to combat militancy.<br /> <br />The 30,000 men and women SPOs - bolstering a police force with duties ranging from fighting militancy to maintaining law and order have been targeted specifically by militants in the last few years.</p>
<p>Jammu and Kashmir police have ordered a high-level internal probe to find out the reasons behind special police officers (SPOs) deserting with service rifles to join militancy. <br /> <br />The development comes a day after two SPOs - Shabir Ahmad and Suliman Ahmad - deserted district police lines (DPL) Pulwama to join militancy on Wednesday. Both were killed in an overnight gunfight with security forces along with two other Jaish-e-Muhammad militants next day.<br /> <br />But the incident left a lesson for the police to learn prompting the top brass to go for fresh measures to prevent it from becoming “a trend or a rebellion” in the over one lakh strong force, that has achieve a success in countering the insurgency in Kashmir since the killing of new age militant commander Burhan Wani in July 2016.<br /> <br />A senior police officer said that even though there is “proper mechanism” to keep an eye on the movement of SPOs, a few more steps will be taken to ensure “any bid by SPOs to desert their units along with service riffles is plugged completely.” <br /> <br />“Their monitoring will be increased and procedure to leave their wings or units will be made stricter,” he said and added the SPOs will have to deposit the service riffle before the in-charge of his wing and seek proper permission for visiting home or moving out of his unit or wing.<br /> <br />Sources said besides the travel movements of SPOs, their personal phones too will be kept on the surveillance to ensure that they don’t come under any militant influence or pressure to join militancy.<br /> <br />Last year SPO Adil Bashir who posted at the official residence of former PDP legislator Aijaz Mir in Srinagar, along with other Hizbul Mujahideen militants managed to decamp with seven rifles of security guards. He had later posed with a group of Hizbul militants in a photograph shared on social media.<br /> <br />In the second such incident at the official residence of Congress legislator Muhammad Muzaffar Parray, four AK-47 rifles were stolen and later the role of one of his personal security guards was established. In the wake of two major incidents, the security wing of police had ordered the withdrawal of the security cover of all the protected persons protected by the SPOs. <br /> <br />SPOs are recruited by the police on fixed monthly remuneration of Rs 12000. The wages of SPOs are given by the state government and reimbursed by the Centre under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme. The police maintain SPOs are an important element in their strategy to combat militancy.<br /> <br />The 30,000 men and women SPOs - bolstering a police force with duties ranging from fighting militancy to maintaining law and order have been targeted specifically by militants in the last few years.</p>
