The Hindu : SOG stops operations?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002

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SOG stops operations?

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR OCT. 22 . The political stand-off in Jammu and Kashmir has put on hold many things but the most significant is stopping of operations against militants by the Jammu and Kashmir Police's elite Special Operations Group (SOG), which became a leading issue in the just concluded elections.

Top officials refused to comment saying "we do not want to talk on issues which have become political". "Normal policing goes on against criminals", said the Director-General of Police, Ashok Suri. Whether the demand of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) that the SOG be disbanded for "it has committed atrocities against the people" is met or not the rank and file of the SOG have started "fulfilling their (PDP) promise to the people" on their own. In the last 10 days the SOG, also known as Special Task Force (STF), has stopped operations against the militants particularly in Kashmir, reliable sources told The Hindu.

The decision not to conduct operations, for which no formal orders have come from any level in the department, is seen as a reaction to the much-hyped campaign against the force. Middle-rung officials in the SOG admit that the operations have been suspended in view of what they say "if filth and dirt being used against the force, which has facilitated the political process to take off with a big bang".

At the SOG headquarters, the morale of the personnel is not so high and they are waiting for the pack-up orders. "We are here to die only and there are only allegations and no appreciation," says a constable. The SOG has broken the back of militancy as it was the police network which could trek them down, says an officer who has been associated with the SOG for last six years. "We have sacrificed 600 officials adding to the numbers of orphans and widows".

The officials do admit that wrongs have been done by certain officials but "that does not make the whole force untouchable". Security experts believe that sending the SOG back to the barracks would prove dangerous.

The PDP which has the SOG on top of its agenda wants to fulfil its promises. "It is our commitment to disband the force and absorb it in police. It has committed atrocities on the people", says the PDP vice-president, Mehbooba Mufti. She used to call it a "symbol of state terror".

The Human Rights Front chairman, Mohammad Ashan Untoo, said that out of 604 complaints pending in the State Human Rights Commission and other fora against forces, most of these were against the SOG. "If it is disbanded, the cases should be investigated against individuals", he says.

The SOG was introduced in 1994 with the special task of breaking the militant network. It is still small in numbers with less than 1,000 personnel operating in 12 of the 14 districts in the State.

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