At a time when the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir has gripped the attention, fresh concerns have arisen with the state recording the highest number of civilian casualties due to “police firing” in the country in 2010. The highest number of deaths and injuries of civilians in the country, with J&K accounting for 69.3 per cent of total civilian injuries, were related to “riot control”.
Home ministry officials said that the police forces in the state are being trained to employ maximum restraint. But this may take sometime.
Latest figures complied by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) further reveal that while 21 police personnel were injured in J&K in terrorist or extremist operations in 2010, as many as 2,930 police personnel suffered injuries due to “riotous mobs”.
Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest incidence of police firing (662) among states and Union Territories, resulting in killings of 91 civilians and injuring 494, as per the government statistics.
“The highest number of police injuries (2,952) accounting for 8.5 per cent of the total police injuries in the country (3,472) was also reported from J&K," it said.
It may be recalled that the state had witnessed a spate of stone-pelting incidents in 2010 resulting in largsescale killings during clashes with the security personnel. "The figures show that there is a greater need to focus on training of the police forces in the state to tackle law and order problems. That should remain the prime focus," an official said.
In Uttar Pradesh, 55 civilians were killed and 68 injured in a total of 445 incidents of police firing followed by West Bengal where 23 civilians were killed and 51 injured in 70 such incidents. “J&K, UP and West Bengal have together accounted for 70.7 per cent of total civilian causalities due to police firing,” the report said.
The occasions necessitating police firing were largely related to “riot control” (50.8 per cent) (722), followed by Operations “against extremists and terrorists” (12.1 per cent) (172) and “anti-dacoity operations” (6.6 per cent) and other incidents which were not classified, it said. Across the country, the highest number of injuries of civilians (623) and police personnel (3324) were caused when the police had to resort to firing during “riot control” activities, it noted.
Meanwhile, Maoist-infested Chhattisgarh recorded the highest number of police personnel (68) killed in “counter-insurgency” operations followed by Jharkhand (20) and Jammu and Kashmir (17) during 2010.