Kuldeep Khoda, the Former Director General of Jammu and Kashmir police has said that the ‘killing of 200 militants in the valley will not restore normalcy and added that 2018 will see more bloodshed in the valley than 2017.
Talking to the Indian Express Khoda predicted, “The year 2018 is bound to be worse than 2017, where casualty of security forces is likely to cross 100.
Khoda was in Delhi to attend a security conclave.
“The killing of over 200 militants by security forces last year is a clear indication that there are more militants in the valley than previous years,” he said, while blaming “politicisation of events for vote bank politics and polarisation” as primarily responsible for escalation of violence in the valley.
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The report further quoted him as “As the DGP, I had sent a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs, stating that out of 22 districts in J&K, 19 were without any presence of militants…The only areas which had presence of militants then were Pulwama, Kupwara and upper Ganderbal,” he said.
Khoda also defended the use of pellet guns to control protests and said that it is the ‘most effective non lethal weapon.’
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“In 2010 agitation, we used pellet guns, but there was no outcry. It is possible that the boys (CRPF), who are using these pellets guns now, have not been trained or instructed properly to cause minimum damage,” he said.
A 1974-batch IPS officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Khoda was appointed the chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) of Jammu and Kashmir in 2013. During his stint as CVC, Khoda said: “I highlighted rampant corruption, nepotism, favoritism in the government. There are certain offices and certain desk where corruption breeds — like (the desks dealing with) scholarship for students, subsidies for various schemes, the reserved/backward area certificate, the revenue documents. We suggested the government to install CCTVs at these desks. If governance is good, lot of irritants mind will be taken care of.”
