Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Abdul Gani Mir is among the prolific police officers of country and has enjoyed an impressive career. Belonging to prestigious IPS Cadre, Mir has displayed his awesome caliber in Maoist infested Jharkhand as Chatra superintendent of police .
His dynamism while rendering services in areas hit by left-wing extremism and other turmoil hit areas has been widely lauded .In an exclusive interview with The Kashmir Scenario, Abdul Gani Mir talks to Malik Sajid & Shah Irshad Qadri.
Childhood is a fascinating period of a person’s life. Tell us a bit about your childhood days?
I belong to a remote village of Kupwara District and attained my education from different institutions of Kupwara district. Overall the childhood days were full of fascination and innocence.
Where you inclined to become an administrator in your childhood?
I had never heard the name IAS/IPS in my childhood. In 1986, I left village for Aligarh, I heard the name of it ( IAS/IPS) first time in a National Newspaper. After completing my MBA in Aligragh Muslim University I worked in a Company in New Delhi for 4-5 months and thereafter I started preparing for Civil Services.
JK police has done tremendous work in maintaining law and order. However, at times police is accused of indulging in harsh practices. There was debate over the Jammu and Kashmir Police Bill 2013. Do you think it is an effective replacement of the old law and would aid in efforts on to change the image of police?
It is not a fact that the police is seen as “harsh” or indulging in any harsh practices. As a matter of fact, J& K police is among the best law and order police force of country. JK Police has produced excellent results in tough circumstances.
In our country Police ACT of 1861 is one &half century old and definitely with the changing times our legislation need to be dynamic we need to understand that fact.
While we are talking about this, do you believe time has come to replace the Jammu and Kashmir Police Act which is medieval in its nature? Are you serious enough to discard third degree torture methods?
As I said earlier we have to make our legislations fit the needs of current times . We have to understand the evolution of responses in context with the problems faced by a particular area. Militancy is a problem which other areas of country doesn’t have. Still in our fight against militancy we have been keen on maintaining healthy human rights record.
The year 2008,2009 and 2010 were tough years for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hundreds of people got killed. We had similar protests happening in Hyderabad but the people killed in Hyderabad protests was far less than in Kashmir. Is it true JK police enjoys certain levels of immunity?
One cannot draw any parallel between the protests in Hyderabad and Kashmir as situation outhere has been highly volatile and sensitive. Perhaps causalities could have been avoided, but we still did our best in tough circumstances.
Next year is an acid test for security agencies as the national as well as the state elections would be held. Is the JK Police geared up for the challenge?
In year 2014 we will be dealing with elections and we have lot of experience as we successfully aided in conduct of many elections. We are confident and no need to worry and successful conduct of elections in 2008 despite volatile scenario at that time bear testimony to this fact.
Of late there has been this trend of young & educated youth are joining the militant ranks. What is your opinion on this issue?
This observation is not based on facts. The facts are contrary to this. There has been media hype that educated youth are joining militant ranks.
One guy namely Touseef Ahanger was not actually a B.Tech as was projected. He was a student of Diploma in engineering. He had failed and his relatives including Father & Uncle were militants. If 40-50 local guys are militants, only 2-3 militants are educated (Graduate or above) which is not a great number. The 1-2 educated militants are from Tral only.
What is being done to tackle the growing menace of drug addiction in Kashmir ?
Drug addiction is certainly a grave issue and we are making all-out efforts to address this grave issue.
It has been heard that you along with your colleagues prepare students for civil Services and It’s seen as a novel effort and many students benefited from it, what prompt you towards such step?
I am just a facilitator, when I joined Kashmir Cadre in 2006. I thought people like me can help the youth to achieve their goals by providing them proper counseling & guidance and we established a career counseling centre Institute For Study Learning & Analysis (ISLA) to benefit the youth of Kashmir and we are trying at our level best to help our youngsters in achieving dreams.
What is your message?
My message is use your positive energy for constructive purposes and excel in whatever you aspire to do.