Army to move back to LoC from Srinagar periphery

NEW DELHI: The J&K government has decided to de-requisition the Army from Srinagar, almost two weeks after it was called in to control the rising mob violence that had led to several civilian deaths in police firing. The Army, which had remained on static deployment on the periphery of the J&K capital, will start moving out to its old positions in areas closer to the LoC.

Though the Army was brought in on July 6 in what was viewed by the Centre as a panic reaction by chief minister Omar Abdullah, was kept out of the city after the Manmohan Singh government advised Mr Abdullah to exercise restraint and avoid deploying the Army against civilians. Mr Singh, through his emissary, home secretary G K Pillai, asked the chief minister to instead concentrate on handling the situation politically by holding all-party meetings and deputing his ministers to connect with the people and hear out their genuine grievances to cool down tempers.

Mr Abdullah, who was told to hold his nerves and get in control of the situation in J&K by taking legal action against the stone pelters and those inciting mob violence, finally took the Centre’s advice and ensured that the Army troops brought to Srinagar were not on active deployment but stationed on the periphery of trouble-prone areas, ready to move in the event of an emergency .

The Army was eventually never needed, with the government employing tools like curfew and SMS bans, apart from taking action against the identified stone-pelters , to prevent the mobilisation of mobs.

Even though Army is on the retreat from Srinagar, the capital city and other areas like Baramulla continue to be tense, more so following the death of a boy by drowning in Baramulla on Saturday in an alleged police chase. With there no trace yet of the body, protests have already broken out in Baramulla. The strike call by Geelani faction of the Hurriyat, which has also laid down a week’s protest plan, only threatens to complicate matters for the security forces.