Targeting CRPF through protests?

As Jammu and Kashmir simmers over the alleged human rights violations by security forces in Shopian and Baramulla, here's a look at the other side of the story.

Central Reserve Paramilitary Force (CRPF) men have been repeatedly targeted in street protests in the Valley since the new government took over. So is Pakistan deliberately provoking the force into retaliating with force?

India's central reserve police force was just recently withdrawn from Baramulla town after firing on civilian protestors. Officials in New Delhi argue that the recent clashes between the CRPF and civilians are not a coincidence. They claim it is the result of a major change in strategy of terrorists and separatists.

In the last eight months, while there has not been a single major terror strike since the new government took over, over 1200 CRPF men have seriously been injured in such protests and over 200 of their vehicles burnt or damaged.

Every Friday, in downtown Srinagar, 30 battalions of CPRF are deployed to take on protestors who pelt stones. Instead of guns, bombs and violence, mass streets protests on local issues have pushed the CPRF on to the other side of the battle lines.

The idea, New Delhi believes, is to spread enough choas to compel security forces to take harsh measures like fire on protestors. That in turn will escalate and spread the agitation.

NDTV has accessed radio message transcripts from across the border, intercepted by security agencies.
"We have sufficient information and confirmation to suggest that policy shift flows from Pakistan in instruction by handlers to separatists leadership in J&K to emphasis on street mobilisation," said Ajai Sahni, executive director, Institute for Conflict Management.

Security sources tell NDTV that the street protests are designed to achieve a couple of targets. One - create a bad image of the central forces and project India as an oppressive state, and two - tie down the CRPF, thereby creating gaps in the security grid.

The Home Minister, sources say, would prefer to pull back the CPRF into the barracks, and retain them only for anti-insurgency operations, not for everyday policing.

But, for Omar Abdullah to replace the CRPF with the locally drawn Jammu and Kashmir Police could be a double edged sword. On the one hand, it could be good politics, but on the other, the worry about whether the local police would act against their own. And not to mention that there aren't enough policemen available anyway.