Do not test patience of police, warns Mehbooba

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 23

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today termed as “shameful” the lynching of police officer Mohammed Ayub Pandith and warned that things would get difficult if the police lost their patience.

“What can be more shameful than this (lynching of officer)? I want to say that the J&K Police are one of the best police forces in the country, they are brave but they are showing the maximum restraint (while dealing with the law and order situation) because they feel that they are dealing with their own people in J-K. But, for how long? she asked while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the wreath-laying ceremony of the slain officer here.

“The day their patience wanes away, then, I believe, things will be difficult. I appeal to the people… there is still time and we should understand. The police force is our own force, they are our children and such a treatment is shameful,” the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister said the DSP was a local and that was the reason he had asked his men to go home to offer the nightlong prayers. “The DSP thought it was his area and he asked his men to go home to perform Shab Khawani (nightlong prayers). What can be trust then?” Mehbooba said.

She said the officer had not gone to the mosque for his personal work but was there to protect the lives of people and fulfil his duty.

“An SHO along with five cops was killed some days back and now this DSP...I appeal to the people… this is a shameful incident… if you behave like this with them then if they lose their patience, God forbid, such a time will come when people had to flee after seeing a (police) gypsy on the road,” she said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police of the security wing Mohammed Ayub Pandith, 57, was beaten to death in the Nowhatta area of the old city when Kashmir was observing Shab-e-Qadr (night of power).