In Ladakh, 1,500 CRPF personnel deployed, says official

Around 1,500 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel are presently deployed in Ladakh to assist the civil administration in securing installations and sustaining legislation and order, a senior authorities official mentioned on Tuesday.

Violence erupted in Leh on September 24 throughout protests to demand constitutional safeguards for the area, leaving 4 individuals, together with a Kargil War veteran, lifeless and round 150 injured, together with 57 safety personnel.

Out of the overall deployment of 1,500 personnel, round 400 had been positioned a month earlier than the violence. The whole energy of Ladakh Police is 2,452.

“Around 900 personnel had been deployed submit September 24. Two firms or 200 personnel are in Kargil whereas the remaining are in Leh. We needed to ship particular winter clothes for the personnel later as half of them had been airlifted to Leh on the night of September 24,” mentioned the official.

The official denied allegations that CRPF had fired pellet weapons to regulate the protest on September 24.

“Armed element of CRPF was deployed at installations as requested by the civil administration. For crowd-control measures, we have now an anti-riot drill gear which incorporates wood sticks, protecting gear and tear-gas munitions. There had been no pellet weapons with us,” mentioned the official.

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Another official mentioned a CRPF jawan who was hit by a giant stone resulting in spinal accidents has been shifted to a hospital in Chandigarh.

The Leh Apex Body, the civil society group engaged in dialogue with the Union Home Ministry for the previous three years, had mentioned final week that a number of protesters had pellet gun accidents and the CRPF had fired at protesters with out the Justice of the Peace’s permission.

There have been a number of rounds of protests and starvation strikes in Ladakh since 2020, a yr after Article 370 of the Constitution was learn down.

A month earlier than the violence, round 400 personnel had been deployed in Ladakh resulting in widespread panic amongst folks. On August 24, Ladakh chief secretary Pawan Kotwal addressed a press convention in Leh stating that the deployment was because of the huge geography of Ladakh and improve in tourism.

Appealing to the general public “to not fall prey to misinformation”, he had mentioned that the police augmentation is solely to reinforce security and safety of the native folks, vacationers, VVIPs and to deal with growing incidents of crimes and the drug menace.