Looking toward restoring the peace process in Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for non-lethal methods to deal with public agitation and ordered the establishment of a high-powered task force to make recommendations on the issue within three months.
The PM’s directions come after the killing of 63 civilians in police action to quell violent protesters in the Kashmir Valley in recent months. Dr Singh noted that despite the curtailment of militant activities in the Valley, the “public order” dimension in the state has become a cause of “serious concern”.
“We need to revisit standard operating procedures and crowd control measures to deal with public agitations with non-lethal, yet effective and focused measures. We also cannot have an approach of one size fits all,” Dr Singh said. Addressing the annual conference of DGPs and IGPs here, the PM said he would ask home minister P. Chidambaram to establish a task force to give recommendations on non-lethal crowd control measures.
Dr Singh said the successful experience of the RAF here in non-lethal crowd control measures should be examined by other police forces. On internal security, Dr Singh said, “The growing presence of non-state actors, fundamentalists and left wing extremists has further complicated matters.” He said growing inter-linkages of destabilising and criminal forces across states and across our borders call for far greater vigilance and coordination between the security agencies than ever before. The PM said that after a relative lull in 2009, the challenges to internal security seem to have re-emerged in more virulent forms. Modern means of communication have ena-bled adversarial forces to mount powerful and convincing propaganda, the PM said.