Kashmir police IG stirs controversy with comments against CRPF

A comment made by Kashmir Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar on the CRPF's role in counter-terrorism operations has stirred a controversy among the forces deployed in the valley, officials said on Friday.

They said IGP Kumar, during a meeting of joint forces at the district police lines in Baramulla on April 29 chaired by DGP Dilbag Singh, reportedly commented that the paramilitary force is a showpiece and the actual operations are conducted by the Army, its elite unit Rashtriya Rifles (RR) with the help of intelligence generated by the state police.

Kumar, a 1997-batch Indian Police Service officer, is stated to have said that the work of CRPF in Kashmir operations has not been good and he knows it better as he himself had served in the paramilitary force on deputation earlier.

Officials said senior CRPF officers present in the meeting did not take the comments kindly and they later confronted Kumar about his "unpleasant" utterances against their force.

Senior state police officials said the issue has created controversy after a section of security forces commanders said the comment was aimed to create a rift among sister forces working against militancy and terrorism in Kashmir Valley.

As the issue refused to die down and senior CRPF commanders sought high-level intervention, the Kashmir zone of the J-K Police issued a tweet on Friday specifically praising the role of the country's largest paramilitary force.

"#DGP J&K Shri Dilbagh Singh complimented role of #BSF, #CRPF, @SSB, #ITBP & #CISF deployed on the various assignment in J&K. Specially #CRPF has played a significant role both in maintaining #L&O (law and order) and #CI (counter insurgency) grids," it said.

Kumar has served in the CRPF as its Deputy IG (New Delhi range) and as the IG in anti-Naxal operations grid of Chhattisgarh and in the operations directorate at the headquarters in Delhi.