Surrendered militants threaten protest

Kupwara, Mar 20: About 150 to 200 surrendered militants of this frontier district have threatened to launch a protests against para-military CRPF authorities for their alleged step-motherly treatment to them in special recruitment drive. The drive was held at Humhama Training Centre Srinagar from March 15 to 18 to fill up more than 250 vacancies reserved for surrendered militants of Kashmir region. “More than 500 ex-ultras were screened and called by CRPF authorities for physical measurement test after getting verification reports from CIK, and CID wings of Jammu and Kashmir police from Kupwara, Varmul, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Islamabad, Kulgam and Pulwama districts. But the authorities dropped the screened eligible candidates (surrendered militants) one by one over one pretext or the other. Recruiting officers were in no mood to select us,” a delegation of surrendered militants told Greater Kashmir. Shabir Ahmad from Kupwara said that he qualified physical tests and all other formalities. “”But at the eleventh hour I was told that I was falling short of just half a kg. In AJK I had undergone an advanced commando training besides four years arms training.” Another aspirant, Ijaz Ahmad said that he was disqualified over the pretext that his age was not matching with the age shown in his date of birth certificate. The ex-militants accused the government of cheating them in the name of “rehabilitation” policy where they were promised jobs and stipend after surrender. “When we surrendered we were promised a job and stipend of Rs 2 lacs. But it all proved a hoax. If the same treatment continues we will be forced to join militancy once again,” threatened Tufail Ahmad a former militant of Lolab who surrendered before the Army in 2008. “Due to non-implementation of rehabilitation policy we are not able to feed our families. We are scared to move out of homes to earn livelihood,” he added. The Public Relations Officer, CRPF, Prabhakar Tripathi said, “the recruitment drive was held strictly according to guidelines and prescribed criteria.” “We will soon launch drive to fill the back-log quota,” he added.