Following the communications blackout in Kashmir after August 5, the Jammu and Kashmir police went out of their way in facilitating telephone calls for the public through the designated phones, according to officials and sources.
“As calls came in, we took the address and asked for land marks as names of villages are sometimes overlapping. Then people were located and brought to the station to enable them to talk. In some cases we took phones to houses and enabled people to talk,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Baramulla Javed Ahmed, speaking to The Hindu over the telephone.
Calls came from several countries — the U.S., UK, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Australia and Austria and even from Pakistan from Kashmiri students studying there, Mr. Ahmed said.
Recounting the challenges the security forces faced, he said people were wary that the police had come to arrest someone while inquiring for addresses. “We had to first get friendly with them or they wouldn't reveal the address,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Another senior police officer, requesting anonymity, claimed the telephone calls for the public began two days after the withdrawal of Article 370 and went on at a frenetic pace for the next 20 days. “In the initial few days there were about 10-20 phones; later there were about 150 phones in the Valley. And soon senior officials including the Commissioner, Superintendent of Police (SP) and DSP were doing it,” he said.
On an average, over 100 people were talking every day, he said and added that on the whole over one lakh calls were made. The number of such calls on public phones have fallen considerably after the landlines were restored. The officer observed that this effort has increased the “goodwill of the police among the public.”
Talking of the situation, Touseef Raina, a Kashmir based social activist visiting Delhi, said local police were there for the people and did commendable work in facilitating telephone conversations for people with their families and relatives outside. During the day they would get calls from outside which the police took details of and would then find the respective persons and facilitate the conversation in the evening. This went till midnight, he stated.
“During the day the police would face stone pelting in some areas, and in the evening they were helping people,” said Mr. Raina. Few areas like Bemina bypass near Srinagar saw stone pelting in the evening, according to him.
In several cases, Mr. Raina said the police, who were locals, had dissuaded protesters from throwing stones at the Army and central police forces. In the absence of the police, the number of casualties would have rises, he said.
