MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) police have raised a ‘special anti-riot force’ to cope with similar situations in future more effectively by employing the latest techniques

This was stated by AJK’s newly appointed Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rana Abdul Jabbar during his maiden media talk on Wednesday.

The new force consists of 500 personnel, aged between 20 and 30 years, who are undergoing a specialised training by master trainers from Punjab, he said.

“The idea behind raising this force is to ensure that a mob should not be handled by a mob (police) and that instead of might, psychological methods should be used to deal with a charged situation so as to mitigate the chances of loss on either side,” Mr Jabbar pointed out.

He said 100 members of this force would be stationed at each of the three divisional headquarters, rea­dy to be deployed by the DIGs concerned as and where required. The rema­ining 200 would serve as a backup force under the DIG Rangers and Reserves in Muzaffarabad, he added.

He said a two-day workshop would be organised for the district police chiefs to familiarise them as to how they have to utilise this special force.

The IGP said that deployment of civil armed forces and even the regular army personnel in support of pol­ice and civil administration was not something unusual in the country, including AJK. “The civil armed forces are invited to defuse the situation in a troubled area and are sent back after restoration of normalcy,” he said.

He said certain social me­dia accounts had been ide­ntified as sources of inc­itement during the recent rights movement in AJK.

In reply to a question about foreign involvement in the unrest, he said investigations were under way and added: “But you must bear in mind that where there is smoke, the enemy would definitely try to ignite fire.”