If able to save a human life, I've done justice with my job : J&K Police Chief
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir’s Director General of Police, Shesh Paul Vaid, said on Wednesday that the youth found indulging in stone-pelting along the Valley’s streets routinely are now increasingly returning in normal life. He said the change is taking place as a result of the police’s ‘relentless effort’ to persuade these youth to shun the ‘path of self-destruction and live their lives happily.”
He said in an interview to this newspaper, “In a small way things are changing. These boys are being misled. In order to bring them back on the right track, the police is doing its bit.” He while referring to the career counselling mela for the Valley’s youth being held in southern Shopian on Thursday said, “It is just a sample and I’m going to replicate it in other districts also”
He said that the boys who would hurl stones and salute Pakistan’s flag or were being lured into militancy and, thereby, treading upon the path of destruction “are today willing to enroll themselves for IAS, engineering and IT courses coaching”.
He said, “We want these children to build their careers. The Prime Minister said that he wants to see pens and laptops in the hands of Kashmiri youth and not stones and the J&K police in a subtle way is contributing towards the effort”. He added, “We don’t want these young boys to die or get involved in cases. People play politics and spoil their career”.
When asked about the parents of these youth being summoned to police stations to ask them to dissuade their children from indulging in stone-pelting and if this has made any difference on ground, he said, “You must understand there is threat of gun looming large over them but, in many cases, people came forward. Our officers spoke to them in a polite way to persuade them to take their children away from this pastime”.
He said, “My mission is; even if I’m able to save just one human life I will think I have done justice with my job. We have recently saved 17 boys from going astray and we think we have done something very big. You know the road they had chosen to tread upon could only lead to death and destruction”.
He confirmed that the police is also trying to encourage these youth to join the organisation itself. He said, “We’re giving coaching for that also. I recently through a video conferencing asked my SPs to give these boys coaching so that they can join also the J&K police, the CRPF and other forces. We are conducting tests to fill up 650 vacancies of sub-inspectors and 5,000 of those of constables. Instead of embarking upon a wrong path they should join police.”
The police chief said that it was true that money is being pumped into Kashmir to keep the stone-pelting pot boiling. "We've inputs that money is coming from across the border to fund the stone-pelting," he said.
