Now, woman commandos to fight against stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir

In order to tackle the female stone pelters, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has formed a team of lady commandos.

Srinagar, June 30: The issue of stone pelting has been a major cause of concern in the terror-ravaged state of Jammu and Kashmir for the past few years. While stone pelters are mostly civilians who resort to throwing stones at security forces during protest marches, the use of brutal force against the civilians by the army personnel has been condemned by human rights organisations across the world.

Several residents of the Valley have been killed and blinded during stone pelting protests in Kashmir. The stone pelting incidents have caused major setbacks to the security forces as well, as several of their men have been injured in the process.

Moreover, stone pelting causes great hindrance during the security forces' operations against the terrorists. In the recent times, several female stone pelters, mostly college-goers, have fought against the police and army men in the Valley during the protest rallies.

In order to tackle the female stone pelters, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has formed a team of lady commandos. The female commandos underwent rigorous training before becoming well-equipped to deal with stone pelting in Kashmir.

"Srinagar: To tackle women stonepelters, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has formed team of lady commandos. These commandos have been given rigorous training including being blindfolded to deal with night deployment & repairing weapons within a minute in case of malfunctions," tweeted ANI.

Jammu and Kashmir witnessed 1,261 incidents of stone pelting last year, with the native town of slain Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani--Pulwama--recording the maximum number of cases against stone pelters followed by Hurriyat leader Syed Geelani's bastion of Sopore.

A total of 91 cases were registered against stone pelters in Pulwama in 2017, while 71 such cases were registered in Sopore, a document accessed by the state home department said.

In 2016, Sopore had recorded nearly 500 incidents of stone pelting, the highest during the Kashmir unrest following the killing of Burhan Wani that year.