NEW DELHI: To
quell protests and militant attacks in India-controlled Kashmir after
abrogating the region's rights to set its own laws, the government in New Delhi
doesn't rely so much on its million-strong army or the police. Rather, it is a
paramilitary police force that is often on the front lines, whether facing
stone-throwing youngsters or seasoned gunmen from militant groups.

That puts the
force, known as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), in an invidious
position as it mans the concertina-wire barricades in the main city of Srinagar
and elsewhere in Muslim-majority Kashmir. Clad in camouflage uniforms, the
force is under the command of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Human-rights campaigners
accuse it of heavy-handed policing with its anti-riot pellet guns, chilli
grenades, which weaponise choking and burning chilli powder, and raids.

It was men from
this force who were the target of a Feb. 14 suicide bomber who drove into an armed
forces convoy in Kashmir and killed 40 of its members. That attack brought
India and neighboring Pakistan, which both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in
part, to the brink of war. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars
since 1947, two of them over Kashmir. Critics say CRPF is often overstretched
and that because training, pay and benefits do not match levels in the army,
morale can suffer.

Living conditions
are poorer than those found in the army, said former officers. After the
February bomb attack, many retired CRPF personnel protested in New Delhi to
demand better pay and benefits. A parliamentary committee investigated the
force's working conditions and said in a December report that authorities were
"over-dependent" on it. The continuous deployment of CRPF companies
that are supposed to be in training "affects the operational efficiency of
the CRPF, as well as denies them training and rest", the committee said.

Taking the lead

The force's
origins can be traced back to the Crown Representative Police, which was
established under British rule in 1939. It evolved into the CRPF with the
enactment of an act in 1949, two years after India's independence, and was
gradually expanded as it went on to tackle secessionist movements on India's
borders. According to the latest available data, it had 319,501 personnel in
Dec. 2017 and the government was planning to add more.

Traditionally,
the force has been deployed to assist the police. But in recent years there has
been a "role reversal" with the CRPF often taking the lead, said PM
Nair, a defense analyst who served in the force for nearly eight years, two of
them in Jammu and Kashmir. "The malleability and the resistance of the
force is very high," said Nair. In Srinagar, it is clear from conversations
Reuters reporters have had with police and CRPF officers that it is the latter
who are running day-to-day operations at the barricades and are in the vanguard
of raids into neighborhoods.

That can create
resentment within the Jammu and Kashmir Police, some of whose officers have
said they are being treated with contempt by CRPF personnel. The CRPF's use of
pellet guns to disperse stone-throwers has led to criticism from rights
activists. A cartridge can contain hundreds of pellets and they have caused
thousands of injuries in Kashmir in recent years, including hundreds of people
blinded. The government has defended the use of what it refers to as non-lethal
weapons. - Reuters