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| India-Pakistan |
| Indian Air Force sends planeloads of tear gas shells and riot batons to Kashmir |
| 2008-08-29 |
| The air force is rushing planeloads of arms to security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, from places as far as the Northeast and Tamil Nadu. The AN-32s are bringing in lathis and tear-gas shells. Caught between the protests in the Valley and Jammu, police and the CRPF -- which alone has some 25,000 men in the two sectors -- are running short of these commonest of weapons in a state that bristles with guns. Guns are, however, not the weapon of choice for the forces at a time their primary job is to control mammoth crowds of protesters rather than beat back militants. So, the Centre has arranged for "solidified plastic lathis" to be flown in by the Indian Air Force, along with surplus teargas shells from states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam. Since the CRPF is deployed in Kashmir on counter-insurgency duties, it does not have enough lathis or tear-gas shells, used mainly to maintain law and order. Having fired close to 10,000 tear-gas shells in the past 15 days and beaten back tens of thousands of protesters, the CRPF has exhausted its stocks. Ditto for the state police. "When most of the force has been deployed for counter-insurgency duty, how can the CRPF be equipped for law-and-order problems? We just planned our stocks," a senior CRPF official said. Sources said there were fewer law-and-order problems in some states and so surplus stocks were available. Every state's police get monthly stocks of tear-gas shells, but not all of them need to fire these too often. Bengal, where the need to control unruly mobs never goes out of fashion, may learn its lessons from Kashmir. The security forces' plight in the northern state -- and the shape the Singur siege is taking -- could well prompt the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to consider stocking up on lathis and tear gas. The batons Bengal police now use are made mostly of cane, fibreglass and wood, and are sourced from the Defence Research and Development Organisation, but the government might toy with the idea of using solidified plastic too. However, in Jammu and Kashmir, where the security forces are bracing for a long haul, just getting extra stocks from other states may not be enough. The problem is, the country's only tear-gas factory at Tekanpur, near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, has shut down production for a month -- a yearly routine during the monsoon -- because of humidity. Experts, however, have held out hope of production resuming soon. "Moisture absorbers, which are used on a smaller scale in cameras and electronic equipment, are now used on an industrial scale. So we have recommended that the factory be made moisture-resistant," a source said. The factory is controlled by the home ministry and receives technical guidance from the Bureau of Police Research and Development. Between June 22 and August 20, the CRPF has controlled protesters for about a week in Kashmir and a fortnight in Jammu. There were 74 incidents in the Valley and 30 in Jammu. In the Valley, 231 CRPF personnel were injured while four civilians died in firing by the force. In Jammu, 88 CRPF personnel were injured while controlling mobs. |
| Posted by:john frum |