NEW DELHI: Despite demands by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah to change the State Director General of Police (DGP), the Center seems to live temporarily shelved any plans to do so.

Several factors have forced the government to indefinitely postpone any changes, the foremost being that Delhi cannot find a replacement for the incumbent, M.N. Sabhanwal, who took charge the day the siege was laid on Snnagar’s Hizratbal shrine last October.

Although Minister of State for Internal Security Rajesh Pilot has been pushing the name of Punjab super cop K.P.S. Gill, officials have been unanimous in their assessment that if anything, Gill’s presence can only worsen the ground situation, which has marginally brightened of late.

The name of the State Vigilance chief, Amar Kapoor, also of DGP rank, has been considered, but many officials in the Valley feel that Kapoor is perceived to be communal by sections of the population.

Bringing an outsider would only upset the applecart; it is felt, and brew resentment at a time when it is imperative for the local police to make itself more accessible and responsive to the needs of the local population.

Then there is the security aspect. It is about now that infiltration and exfiltration to Pak-occupied Kashmir (POK) would begin, as the snow has almost melted and the passes have become more accessible.

With the Government’s eye on reviving the political process in the Valley, the authorities need to exercise more vigilance to keep the heat on the militants, and thus a wholesale change in the police force is the last thing they want.

The forces in the Valley have driven hard during the past month and a half, and Government sources claim that there have been successes as far as Srinagar and other towns in the Valley are concerned:

However, there is concern that militants remain firmly enounced in the countryside, particularly in Doda district of the Jammu region, and the stretch up to the higher reaches of Anantnag district in the Valley.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 29, 1994