(There have been reports in mainstream newspapers suggesting that policemen have been evacuated from police stations in four districts of South Kashmir. However, our reporter has found a welcome coordination among all the forces, something that was missing in 2010. In fact, the army has provided the ‘steel frame’ within which the paramilitary forces have also held ground.)
The Azad Gunj bridge spans the wide width of the Jhelum river in Baramulla. On Sunday 14 August, it presented a scene straight out of a war film. Police and CRPF jeeps and lorries pushed forward three-quarters of the way across the bridge towards the congested Old Town, as men from those forces moved in bullet-proof, battle-ready lines on either side, and in taut rows in front of the vehicles.
They fired tear-gas shells and pellets at a melee of running, yelling boys on the road and along the bank on the Old Town side of the river. After a while, those forces slowly moved back. By then, there had been a lot of injuries, some on each side.
That high-voltage battle was the district police’s reaction to the Pakistani flag being raised in a formal ceremony with young people in school uniforms. Students in school uniforms were lined up and two horses decked out for the ceremony. Led by an irate district officer, the police and CRPF swung across the bridge before a speech could be given after the flag raising.