The J&K Police Friday said that Special Police Officers (SPOs) joining militant ranks was not becoming a trend. However, the force ordered a high-level inquiry behind the phenomenon.
The development comes a day after two SPOs – Shabir Ahmad ofPulwama and Salman of Shopian – deserted district police lines Pulwama to joinmilitancy. Both were killed in an overnight gunfight with security forces alongwith two other Jaish-e-Muhammad militants on Friday morning.
“SPOs joining militant ranks is not a trend. It is more ofan aberration,” a top police officer, who is part of the counter insurgencygrid in Kashmir, told Greater Kashmir. He said this has happened in the pastalso, “but the police force never allowed it to become a trend.”
The officer said a high level internal probe has beenordered to find out the reasons behind the two SPOs joining militancy. “Therewill be thorough investigation for sure,” he said, wishing not to be named.
A source in the police said that even though there is”proper mechanism” to keep an eye on the movement of SPOs, a few more stepswill be taken to ensure “any bid by SPOs to desert their wings and units alongwith their service riffles is plugged completely.” “Their monitoring will beincreased and procedure to leave their wings or units will be made morestrict,” he said.
Last year, two major incidents of weapons loot in Srinagarhad sent the entire security apparatus into a tizzy. The investigations intoboth incidents pointed out the role of SPOs. In the first incident thatoccurred at the official residence of former PDP legislator Aijaz Mir, NIAprobe established the role of Mir’s SPO Adil Bashir, who along with other HizbulMujahideen militants managed to decamp with seven rifles of Mir’s securityguards. SPO Adil had also managed to take away personal pistol of Mir. Adil hadlater posed with a group of Hizbul Mujahideen militants in a photograph sharedon social media.
In the second incident at the official residence of Congresslegislator Muhammad Muzaffar Parray, four AK-47 rifles were stolen and laterthe role of one of his personal security guards was established. In the wake oftwo major incidents, the security wing of police had ordered withdrawal of thesecurity cover of all the protected persons protected by the SPOs. A series ofguidelines were issued to SPOs to plug the weapon snatching by them and one ofthe major directions was that all the vehicles used by SPOs and the PersonalSecurity Officers (PSOs) for travel will have a micro-chip so that they remainunder the radar of police.