Srinagar’s old quarter, once the hotbed of Kashmiri insurgency and where the population’s protracted political discontent often finds expression on the streets with irate crowds of mainly youth clashing with the police and paramilitary forces was turned into an altogether different theatre for the supposed rivals to meet head-on on Wednesday.
The Jammu and Kashmir police department organised a special recruitment drive to attract the city youth, including those allegedly involved in stone throwing incidents during the deadly outbursts witnessed here during the past three summers.
Witnesses and police officials said that hundreds of Srinagar youth lined up in front of a police sub-district office at Khanyar for recruitment of about 300 constables. “The response has been awesome and we only feel encouraged by this,” said inspector-general of police (Kashmir range) Shiv Mohan Sahai.
Another police officer added saying that “This would go a long way in tackling the menace of stone-pelting which has ruined the future of a large section of Srinagar youth and, in fact, relocated many of them to their graves during the past three years.”
At least, 110 protests were killed during the civil unrest of last summer; mostly in police and CRPF firings and beating in Srinagar and its neighbourhood.
The unrest was sparked off by the death of a 17-year-old student Tufail Ahmed Mattoo after a police teargas canister broke his scull at Rajwari Kadal in central Srinagar in June last year.
Director-general of police Kuldeep Khoda, while speaking to reporters at the recruitment site, admitted to Srinagar having “modest” representation in the Jammu and Kashmir police and said that the specially-organised recruitment will not only open up opportunity for its aspiring youth to earn their living but will also help towards maintaining the law and order in a better way “as those being taken onboard will undoubtedly know and understand the area problems and issues in a better way”.