After losing its unarmed jawans to militants, the CRPF has categorically told the state police that its men requisitioned by the police for law and order problems would not carry out static duties, which is a violation of the standard operating procedure (SOP) as well.
A senior CRPF official told The Tribune the decision was conveyed to police officials present in a top-level meeting attended by security agencies in the wake of the killing of two CRPF jawans on August 31. Both jawans were on static duties outside an ATM.
He said the state police had made it a practice to deploy CRPF personnel requisitioned to deal with volatile situations like protests on standing duty on roads and in market places, a job meant for the police. “Since these jawans were meant for law and order duties, most of them would carry only batons and only a small component would be armed. By deploying them on static duties, the police violated the SOP,” he said.
The top CRPF brass has told the police that their men requisitioned for a “specific purpose” should be called out for a “specific job” only.
The effect of the decision is already visible in Srinagar and the sight of baton-carrying CRPF jawans has disappeared.
Though the SOP also makes it clear that long-term deployment of the CRPF would not be for law and order duties the peculiar condition of Kashmir, where protests are common which had seen a renewed vigour this year before the police clamped down on separatists, meant the paramilitary force often did what it was not supposed to. And the deployment of their unarmed jawans on static duties in crowded and often hostile areas was almost an invitation to militant attacks.
The CRPF is also responsible for keeping the highway safe, called ROP (road opening parties) duty in official parlance, but these jawans are armed and deployed strategically.
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