The Election Interview/Director General of J&K Police A K Suri
The director general of the Jammu & Kashmir police, A K Suri, heaved a sigh of relief after the election in the state passed off without any major terrorist strikes.
Suri told Chief Correspondent Onkar Singh at his office in Srinagar that though holding the election was a huge task, providing security to the poll personnel and thwarting the attempts of the terrorists was an even bigger responsibility. Excerpts:
Providing security to the candidates during their electoral campaign and, later, the polling personnel was a huge task. How did you accomplish it?
In one word --- commendable. The security forces and the state police have done an excellent job in conducting very free, fair, and excellent elections.
We provided the contesting candidates adequate security cover. More than 2,000 election rallies across the state were managed by us. We had chief ministers of various states coming and holding rallies in the state. Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed a public meeting in Srinagar.
Then we had leaders of various political parties from the state. Most of them who addressed the rallies were VVIPS of the Z-plus category. And we could ensure their protection without any major incident.
We instilled a sense of confidence amongst the voters. Despite the enormous threat and propaganda by the terrorist organisations asking people not to vote, the voter turnout was remarkable. And this was made possible because of the sense of confidence that we were able to give them.
We have managed successfully a very, very tough election. I am proud of my boys and the security forces who helped the state police in accomplishing this difficult task.
Did you have any information that the terrorist outfits would try to disrupt the counting as well?
We had some inputs to that effect and we had made elaborate security arrangements to meet any kind of challenge. We had made sure that even if the terrorist made an attempt to disrupt the process of counting, he would not have escaped. He would have faced death. We had even deployed a motorboat to deal with any kind of challenge coming from the Dal Lake side in the Srinagar counting centre.
How many security persons did you deploy to ensure that elections passed off peacefully?
Besides the state police, I had 437 companies of paramilitary forces to assist us in security duty. We had more than 70 companies of the state police doing duty. In all, about 9,000 security personnel were deployed for duty.
You had provided bullet-proof jackets to the polling personnel, but very few of them were used.
The task of providing security to the polling personnel and sending them from phase to phase also fell on the state police. As more than 5,000 polling personnel had come from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, it was a tremendous challenge to protect them during their duty in the state besides protecting the polling personnel on duty from within the state.
If the polling parties did not use the bullet-proof jackets during the election, then it is because of the security environment. We were able to instil confidence in them and that is why they did not feel the need to use the bullet-proof jackets.
How many lives were lost during the election campaign?
Democracy has paid a price of more than 800 lives during the two-month period. For half of them [those who died], I have no love because they were terrorists. But I feel sad about the other 400 innocents who lost their lives for nothing. These included men, women, and children and they had nothing to do with terrorism. Out of them, 150 were members of the security forces.
K P S Gill believes that suicide attackers need to be killed. What is your view?
Anyone who opens fire on my men shall meet death. If I could catch a fidayeen, it would be a bonus for me. Then I would be able to show to the world what he has come here for. Unfortunately, till date we have not been able to capture one alive. Because none of them has surrendered after the operations. They have been invariably killed during the action.
What is the situation on the border? Is infiltration still on the rise?
The infiltration of terrorists from across the border has been going on. In fact, during the last two months it increased substantially. Winters are yet to set in and we will have to access in due course how things would move in the coming months.
Elections have been held in Pakistan as well and a new government will take charge there as well. We have to wait and watch how things develop in due course.
Do you think a new government in Pakistan would be different from the one now?
Frankly speaking, no. But we must give them a chance to prove otherwise. Kashmir is in their blood and they could continue to do what they have been doing till now.
Are you satisfied with the job that you have done?
Not only me, the whole world is satisfied with our job. We have managed to conduct free and fair elections, much to the annoyance of the enemy across the border.
Image: Rahil Shaikh; Photograph: Abdul Qayoom
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