CRPF removes another bunker in Kashmir

Srinagar, Apr 26 (UNI) The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) today removed another post from Safa Kadal in the downtown city.

The post was at the centre of a controversy recently after the locals resorted to massive protests to seek its removal, alleging that bunker hampered the entry of devotees to a mosque.

The post was located just near the mosque.

The CRPF had earlier withdrawn its personnel and removed the post near the grand Jamia mosque at Nowhatta in the downtown city after nearly 18 years.

The post, set up immediately after the outbreak of militancy in the Kashmir valley in 1989, had been a target of militants during all these years and attacked on number of occasions.

Several innocent civilians, security personnel and militants had been killed in the bloody attacks during these years.

The personnel of the CRPF's 96 battalion were at present deployed in the post set up in the Kawoosa building at the Nowhatta chowk.

The post had been first set up by the CRPF which handed it over to the BSF in 1992.

After using the post for more than 14 years, the BSF handed it over to the CRPF again last year.

The BSF was replaced by the CRPF in Kashmir last year.

The CRPF had earlier removed its two huge bunkers -- one at Qamarwari Chowk and the other near Shiraz Cinema -- in the city.

Before that, the Force had removed a bunker near the Women's College on the Maulana Azad Road here.

Sources in the CRPF said many more such bunkers would be removed in the coming days once the top brass approved the proposal.

They said the measures were in consonance with the CRPF's policy to adopt more friendly approach to win the hearts and minds of the people of Kashmir.

The sources said the CRPF has decided to remove bunkers and posts from the congested areas and also those blocking the roads and leading to traffic snarls in the city.

UNI