Army officer's murder fails to scare Kashmir youth away from joining uniformed forces

Srinagar: The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir said on Thursday that the militants by killing a young unarmed Army officer in cold blood in the State’s southern Shopian district earlier this week may have also been aimed at scaring the local youth away from joining the security forces.

But the “tremendous” participation of the Kashmiri Muslim youth in police recruitment rallies witnessed during the past two days suggest that the act “has failed to deter them from seeking to secure their future by joining the uniformed forces”, they said.

They said that police recruitment rallies were held in Anantnag and Bandipore districts during which both male and female candidates in large numbers turned up. A statement issued by the police here said that in Bandipora the two- day recruitment rally concluded with 2,797 candidates appearing in the first phase of the process. Out of these 842 candidates were declared qualified. In Anantnag, as many as 3,374 candidates turned up for the physical test in first two days and 1,161 of these were declared qualified. The recruitment rally in Anantnag will continue for the two more days, the officials said adding that the candidates who have qualified the physical test will have to appear in the written test for final selection for which the dates will be issued separately.

“There has been enthusiastic participation of the youth in police recruitment process. In all as many as 6,171 candidates participated in two days,” said a police spokesman here. The police also said that the physical test in the recruitment of sub inspectors will start on May 13.