AMRITSAR: Militancy in Punjab will become more organized in the days to come, the Director General, Punjab police, Mr. D.S. Mangat feels.

He said at the CRPF central control room here, the “subversion” would not be in terms of physical violence but a winning over loyalty of government servants and infiltration into government departments by militants.

“The battle of wits between the security agencies and these forces in the state may become more intense in the near future” the police chief observed. He was on a two-day visit to the border districts.

A strategy had been drawn up to deal with the freedom movement in a resolute manner. The thrust would be on neutralizing the social base of the militants, he said.

There were he said, 145-odd groups of militants known to be operating in the border state with as many as 1700 listed members of them 219 were of hardcore category and other 1500 non hardcore, Mr. Mangat, added.

According to Mr Mangat, five major militant outfits are still quite powerful in terms of manpower and firepower. These are the Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar), Khalistan Liberation Force (Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala), Babbar Khalsa, KCF (Wassan Singh Zaffarwal) and the Bhindranwale Tigers Force of Khalistan (Manochahal),

Nevertheless, these outfits had lately received major setbacks and were finding it difficult to get weapons from across the border due to tight surveillance on the Punjab frontier.

The militants were exploring to infiltrate from the border in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Nepal and even Bangladesh, he said.

The police chief claimed that Pakistan continued abetting militants. The assessment of various intelligence agencies on the number of militants in Pakistan varied, he said.

The pull out of the Army, would not create any security vacuum, he asserted adding that nor would it put the security forces under more pressure.

He however agreed that many militant groups which had shifted to the Doaba and Malwa belts following the induction of troops last year might return back to the border areas, The Tam Taran belt, he pointed out continued to be a permanent hideout of several groups.

Mr Mangat said: “We are confident of dealing with the situation with the available force. The situation certainly is not alarming. There is no cause of panic, the incidents of kidnappings and extortion had become much less, he added.

Mr Mangat added whatever support militants were getting was merely out of fear. The police was fighting the militants, but steps to combat militancy were “less pronounced.” He agreed that the killing of militants was not having as much deterrent effect as the judicial punishment of criminals would have. Mr Mangat said a proposal to the Center seeking the introduction of the police commissioner system in the cities of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana was still pending. The system was for giving magisterial and regulatory powers to the police officers, he added.

Referring to the plans for the augmentation of the police force, he said 2,000 vacancies of constables would be filled up soon. The Central government has been requested to provide more sophisticated weapons to the force.

Mr Mangat ruled out any major shakeup in the top brass of the Punjab police, Referring to the willingness expressed by five SSPs to be sent on deputation out of the state, he said this was part of the routine exercise of sending 25% of the IPS cadre officers on deputation every year.

A number of IGs, DIGs and SSPs had sought transfer on deputation, he pointed out adding many of them were feeling tired physically and emotionally due to the long stint in Punjab.

Mr. Mangat held a high-level meeting with the DIG (border range), Mr. R.S. Chalia, and police chiefs of the five border police districts.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 19, 1991