SPO killed in Jammu had raised concerns over deployment, locals tell police

Bobby Chand, who was gunned down alongside his nephew Rachpal Kumar in Kishtwar, had apprehensions about being deployed on a weekly basis at a Temporary Operational Base of the Rashtriya Rifles in Dharna village

Special Police Officer (SPO) Bobby Chand, who was gunned don alongside his nephew Rachpal Kumar in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district this week, had apprehensions about being deployed on a weekly basis at a Temporary Operational Base (TOB) of the Rashtriya Rifles in Dharna village and had raised concerns about his deployment outside the territorial jurisdiction of the place of his posting, his family members and local villagers have claimed.

On Saturday, Inspector General of Police, Jammu, Tejinder Singh and senior police officers from Kishtwar visited the families of the two men in Kiyar. Their bodies were found in Marwah tehsil on Thursday, less than 24 hours after they went missing.

According to local villagers, the men were posted at a Special Operations Group (SOG) post in Kiyar under the Dachhan tehsil. The post had four people, and since last month, a senior police officer at Kishtwar had prepared a weekly roster, asking two at a time to accompany RR personnel at the Dharna TOB in Marwah tehsil.

Senior police officers, including the Jammu IGP, could not be contacted till late evening. Kiyar village is known to have no mobile phone connectivity and is locally known as a "shadow zone".

On Saturday, the IGP was accompanied by DIG Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar range, Sargun Shukla, and Kishtwar SSP Sunny Gupta.

The villagers told the officers that when two SPOs were returning to the Kiyar post after a week-long duty from the Dharna TOB, they came across some locals in the forests who asked them where they were from and who would replace them. However, the SPOs did not suspect anything, as those people appeared to be locals, the villagers claimed while speaking to the officers.

According to locals, the deceased SPOs reached Dharna village around 3 pm and, after lunch, proceeded towards a mountain ridge where the RR had established its TOB. They were reportedly walking some distance ahead of nearly half a dozen civilians, who were carrying rations on ponies for RR personnel.

During the journey, they came under fire. The ponywallas fled to safety and reported the matter at the police post in Dharna village, while the SPOs, who had weapons, went missing, according to locals.

According to Rachpal's cousin Ajay Parihar, Chand had a close shave in 2000 when militants wearing Army uniform attacked members of the then village defence committee in Kiyar, killing eight.

Police face criticism

Kishtwar MLA Shagun Parihar also raised the issue of SPOs being deployed outside the tehsil where they were posted. Addressing the local villagers, Parihar sought an inquiry and action against the officer who prepared the roster.

Parihar, who is from the BJP, also had an outburst directed at DIG Shukla, saying "she has come here three days after the killing of the SPOs and that, too, following instructions from the Lt Governor".

She claimed that the bodies of the SPOs were brought from a health facility in Nawapachi to the nearest motorable point towards Kiyar by local villagers in a "dumper".

Leader of the Opposition, BJP's Sunil Sharma, also criticised senior police officers during their visit.

Talking to the Jammu IGP in Kiyar, Sharma said, "What kind of operational strategy is this - you give one of them a .303 rifle and another an INSAS rifle, and ask them to carry out the operation?"

"We too have seen the operations," he said. "Lekin itni nalayaki mainey kabhi nahi dekhi hai (but I have not seen such incompetence so far)."