DEHRADUN: PAC jawans ran amok in Srinagar (Garbwal) after receiving the news that two of their platoons were being removed from the region.
PAC jawans ransacked shops and assaulted I caving the town, A group of PAC men even cut up a few stray dogs to give vent to their feelings. DIG (Garhwal) Shaitandra Sagar, however, claimed that the removal of PAC from Srinagar was necessitated following an “attack” on their camps by angry agitators. Sagar’s version is that the mob looted Rs 60,000 meant to be dispersed among the jawans as their salary, burt their personal belongings and tents.
The Rapid Action Force (RAF) has replaced the PAC in Srinagar, but informed observers here defunts the police’s justification for change of personnel as “big. lie.” It is felt that a trigger happy force like the PAC, notorious for leaving a trail of blood from wherever their jawans pass, would not have taken a mob attack on them lying down. Though meant to be a strike force of the Uttar Pradesh Police, its jawans strike at will.
Responsible for shooting down seven persons in Mussoorie last month and then repeating the performance near Muzaffarnagar early this month, they stop at nothing. Their hand is eyen suspected in the coldblooded murder of Mussoorie Deputy Superintendent of Police, Uma Kant Tripathi, though the areca MLA Rajinder Singh Shah (of BJP) has been held as the main accused in the case.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 14, 1994
