Caught in the middle: Kashmiri police face public wrath amid anti-India uprising
Tasked with gathering intelligence and profiling anti-India activists, Kashmiri police are feeling demoralised, afraid and caught in the middle between the Indian authorities who employ them and the friends and neighbours who question their loyalties
Before the crack of dawn and before the protesters hit the streets to resume demands India leave Kashmir, he dressed like an ordinary man and made sure not to carry anything identifying him as police.
He joined six passengers in a shared taxi outside his village in a lush pine forest near the militarised boundary that divides the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan. A young woman asked if he was a policeman, warning that it could mean trouble for all of them if he was found out by the anti-India protesters who regularly check IDs at highway roadblocks.
“I couldn’t lie,” the officer said. He managed to convince them he could pass undetected. “But deep down I was shattered, and scared, given how hard it is to hide one’s identity in this place.”
That’s left the local Kashmiri police, tasked with patrolling the streets, gathering intelligence and profiling anti-India activists, feeling demoralised, afraid and caught in the middle between the Indian authorities who employ them and the friends and neighbours who question their loyalties.
The plainclothes officer in the taxi – one of 12 police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of both public reprisal and official retribution – managed to avoid detection until he reached his precinct in the main city of Srinagar.