Collateral Damage

The 1990s was the time of violence, confusion and quick thinking in Kashmir. An extract

Mahendra Sabharwal

A few years later, in 1992, our daily security review meeting in the secretariat with General Zaki, the security adviser to the governor, was interrupted by news about a large crowd of 7,000 people carrying the four dead bodies of militant commanders killed by the BSF in an exchange of fire the previous night in Batmaloo. The procession was shouting religious and separatist slogans. It was determined that the bodies would be presented to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on Gupkar Road, passing through the main business area about two kilometres away through the main Maulana Azad Road. General Zaki ordered me to deal with the issue. We had no problems letting the procession reach the burial ground but felt the public march to the UN office by such a large and emotional crowd could create problems and had to be stopped. This was an open defiance of the law, even as BBC correspondents were calling the encounter a human rights violation. We were also curious since the BSF had told us they had only killed three militants the night before.

The procession soon swelled to 10,000 people, but disturbingly, it was accompanied by armed militants carrying automatic weapons, forcing civilians to join the procession. The slogan shouting crowd carrying dead bodies soon attracted press attention. After consulting with my colleagues, the police chief of the Kashmir Range Hafiz Akhtar and Srinagar district police chief K. Rajendra, we immediately passed a message to the control room, ordering small paramilitary forces’ contingents on the route of the procession to not engage the crowds since we had planned a surprise interception at the North Polo View Junction on Maulana Azad Road. Rajendra later became J&K police chief and was gravely injured when he bravely fought the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists preparing to storm the then chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s public rally in Srinagar.

On the day of the procession, along with Kashmir Range police chief, Hafiz Akhtar and our security entourages backed by one CRPF company, we blocked the front of this procession. At the same time, Rajendra and his team fired tear-gas shells and barricaded the rear exit points near the Badshah Chowk at Maisuma locality. My decision to let the procession proceed till we were ready drew on