The Jammu and Kashmir Government is finally waking up to the changing course of Kashmir’s separatist movement. The state police have procured an urgent consignment of riot gear, tear smoke shells, rubber pellets and riot control guns as part of their preparation to control unarmed protests.

Sources reveal that the police have always been short of standard riot control gear. “Then there is the problem of mindset as well. The continuous fight with militants has completely changed the attitude of the police. They have become more of like the army,” a senior police officer said.

“Because the emphasis was on fighting insurgency, where nothing but firearms were used, over the years, the J-K Police have forgotten the basics of normal law enforcement. It’s unfortunate, but true,” he added.

The police department admits that the current protests in the Valley have caught the top brass off guard. “Our men are used to carrying sophisticated weapons and the situations have been such that they had to open fire whenever they were attacked. We urgently need a transformation from a military mindset to a police mindset in our men,” a senior officer said. He said the casualties increase because the policemen fire without making a difference between a militant group and a stone-pelting mob.

In fact, the doctors in Kashmir’s premier SHMHS hospital, too, point out this strange phenomenon. “More than 90 per cent wounded people, who were brought to the emergency (during the current protests), had received bullet injures above the waist,” Dr Saleem Iqbal of SMHS told The Indian Express. “This is alarming,” he added.

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