J&K: On Facebook and WhatsApp, special police officers announce resignations

Jammu and Kashmir's special police officer (SPO) Rafiqa Akthar in a video posted on Facebook on Monday announced he had quit. Akthar, a resident of Bongam village in Kulgam district, said that she has left her job without any pressure or fear. Militants killed three policemen, two of them SPOs, they had abducted on September 21 in south Kashmir’s Shopian. SPOs draw a monthly salary of Rs 5,000 and are not permanent employees of the police, but they wear uniforms and are sometimes used for anti-militancy operations. Shabir Ahmad Thokar, a resident of Samnoo in south Kashmir, said on camera he had decided to disassociate himself from the police after eight years as an SPO. “From today, I am not associated with police as I have resigned from my job,’’ he said. “No SPO has resigned. The poor SPO who used to stand at the gate of our court (in Shopian) has willingly absented himself from duty and is lying on social media about his resignation. Can see many policemen in Court Complex taking affidavits regarding their resignation,” said Habeel Iqbal, a lawyer at district and sessions court, on Twitter to reject government claims that police officials have resigned after threats. Riyaz Naikoo, operational commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen militant group, last week in an audio message released on social media asked policemen and SPOs to resign. The three policemen were killed in Kaparan and Batagund villages days after Naikoo’s threat. Dilbagh Singh, Director General of Police, had termed the resignation of SPOs and policemen as rumours circulated by militant sympathisers after the policemen’s murders. State chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam on Tuesday admitted SPOs had resigned. “Yes, there were couple of resignations but they are insignificant. The government will revise their (SPOs) salary,” he said. -PTC News