Tribune News Service
Srinagar, October 12

The police and the Army have decentralised the anti-militancy operations in the Valley with more coordination at the top level to accomplish the mission to restore peace in Kashmir.

“The coordination level has been decentralised to the battalion level, district level and the police station level,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Munir Khan told The Tribune.

He said policies were framed at the highest level with the complete cooperation of the Army and “then the directions are executed at grass-roots level”. “The policy is decided on the basis of feedback from the ground level,” he said.

Khan, who has been the brain behind this strategy, said trust was reposed among the doers in the police force and the ones who could work in tandem with the Army in a better fashion to achieve the results on the ground “for retrieving peace”.

“We believe in a simple thesis that the militants have no business to disturb peace in Kashmir, and we are here to break their anti-peace moves,” Khan said.

“It is not our individual fight against individuals. It is a fight about peace versus violence and to categorise our efforts as violence versus violence is absurd,” Khan said.

At present when elections are being conducted in the state, the job of the police becomes very critical. But the police are determined to work with the public and insulate it from subversive elements. This cooperation, sources said, had helped the state police in maintaining a check on violence during the elections.

There were 43 deaths in the 2004-2005 municipal polls, and this time the effort by the police has helped maintain the law and order situation. “I give credit to the men on the ground and I stand by them even during operations,” Khan said.