New Delhi: In an Instagram reel, a young girl is seen walking up to Shopian Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Tanushree. As the two shake hands, the girl is asked what she wants to be when she grows up, by the person taking the video. “I want to become a DC (deputy commissioner),” she replies promptly.
The minute-long clip ends with smiles, and Tanushree wishing the girl the best of luck.
The reel, which has garnered more than 1.5 lakh views and 11,000 likes, is among hundreds such featured on Instagram fan pages in Tanushree’s name.
Tanushree, a 2017-batch IPS officer and Shopian SSP for the last year, is one of three women posted in some of the most sensitive police districts in Kashmir, deemed as “hotbeds” of militancy and separatism.
The others are 2018-batch IPS Divya Dev, who was appointed Sopore SSP in January this year, and P.D. Nitya, the Pulwama SSP since February.
Senior officers in Jammu and Kashmir Police have hailed their performances as path-breaking for having restored people’s trust in the administration while not letting their guard down on militancy.
The fan page that uploaded the reel of the girl meeting Tanushree has nearly 16,000 followers. Other reels on the page show Tanushree working at different locations in Shopian — organising community outreach and sports events. One of the videos calls Tanushree an inspirational figure who has “totally changed” the face of Shopian.
Short videos and reels of IPS and IAS officers uploaded by fan pages have become such a phenomenon that some states, such as Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, have started considering regulations to curb them. Nearly every move of the officers is recorded and uploaded in a short and crisp format on these fan pages, generating a cult-level fan following and massive engagement for the page owners.
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‘She’s a tough nut’
Senior police officers said that while posting Tanushree as SSP in Shopian was not a “larger strategic call” to begin with, the move, in hindsight, did wonders. Her interest in Kashmir and intelligence-based operations made her a compelling candidate.
Not only did she secure a good grip over all aspects of Shopian, but also opened the doors for her contemporaries by making the police leadership see the favourable impact women officers could bring in their respective jurisdictions.
“Tanushree showed immense interest in intelligence-based operations and Kashmir and was posted as Shopian SSP two years ago. Amid scepticism from some quarters in the security establishment about a young woman officer who does not have extensive experience working in Kashmir, she has proved to be a tough nut as the first lady officer to head a district in Kashmir,” J&K Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Vijay Kumar told ThePrint.
“As Tanushree proved her mettle in Shopian, it opened the doors for the likes of Nitya, Divya Dev, and Sheema Nabi Qasba, who went on to head police districts, subsequently,” he added.
IPS officer Sheema Qasba headed the Rajouri police district for nearly 10 months before being deputed to the Intelligence Bureau.
Apprehensions within establishment
SSP Tanushree said Kashmir was always her preferred posting, and the inspiration to join the police force came from her father, who retired as Deputy Inspector General of Police in Jharkhand.
“When they asked if I want to work in Jammu division or Kashmir, I opted for the latter because of my interest in intelligence and operations,” she told ThePrint.
Calling her job one-of-a-kind, Tanushree said top officers continued to back her despite her not starting her Shopian stint on a great note — she did not immediately deliver a drastic decrease in the number of attacks in Shopian.
“I heard about some apprehensions the security establishment had, but police leadership always reposed faith in me despite the not-so-great start. There were some civilian killings in Shopian in the first few months after my arrival, but top police leadership always backed me to come out good. Eventually, I have been able to deliver as the number of attacks on civilians decreased drastically from 14 in 2022 to just one in 2023,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sopore SSP Divya Dev said her transfer from Delhi to J&K and eventually to Sopore came as a massive opportunity, and she put her best foot forward to get the desired results.
An engineering student and daughter of a sub-inspector in the Tamil Nadu Police, Dev said there was a lack of belief among people that a young woman officer from southern India could understand the situation or problems in South Kashmir but that she won them over with continued outreach programmes.
She termed the 44 percent voter turnout in Sopore in the general election a vindication of her work.
“Sopore was the breeding ground for militancy and separatism, and people hardly had faith in the government or its due process. But, things have changed now — established by the massive jump in voting percentage in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections,” SSP Dev told ThePrint.
However, she accepted that challenges remain. Sopore has been the stronghold of the banned outfit, Jamaat-e-Islami.
“Though no major attacks have taken place in Sopore, at least in the last year, we have intercepted militants taking shelter here, and we were successful in eliminating two Lashkar commanders in the Nowpora area in April this year,” SSP Dev added.
Pulwama SSP P.D. Nitya said questions over gender become “secondary” once an officer performs on the ground for the people.
“To serve in Kashmir valley is always a challenge for any officer. Ultimately, one’s performance is judged based on the hard work and teamwork put through the tenure. I think gender questions become secondary if results are delivered on the ground,” she said.
She added that bringing all sections including NGOs and the civil society together was a key to her successful stint in Pulwama.
She tasted her first major success earlier last month when security forces eliminated Riyaz Ahmad Dar, possibly the longest active commander of Lashkar who had joined militancy in 2015, and Rayees Ahmad, who had joined militancy in 2021.
Nitya first came into the limelight when her research report at the annual conference of Director Generals (DGs) and Inspector Generals (IGs), attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in January last year, highlighted China’s aggression in eastern Ladakh.
Her report had emphasised that India had lost access to 26 of 65 patrolling points between Karakoram pass and Chumur which were patrolled regularly by Indian Security Forces (ISFs).
“Now, three lady officers are posted as district SSPs in Kashmir Valley and one in the Jammu area. These officers have worked on both fronts — tough on terrorism and empathetic with the general public. They have won the public’s trust successfully by showing more compassion and empathy,” said ADGP Kumar, quoted earlier.
He added: “They act as role models for many young girls who had never seen women in power before this. Now, many girls are aspiring to become IAS and IPS in an area that was a hotbed of terrorism.”
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One step closer to ‘stakeholder’
Among other factors that count as successes for these young women officers, ADGP Vijay Kumar stressed, is that they made the women in the areas under their jurisdiction feel comfortable and confident to come forward with their problems.
Women, as mothers, wives and sisters, form the backbone of society, playing a significant role in shaping the choices and future of youth everywhere in the country but, more importantly, in Kashmir, where youth are on the radar of militants for radicalisation, ADG Kumar said.
“Women, who form a large part of society, feel more comfortable to discuss their problems with them (women officers). Mothers and sisters play a major role in reducing the recruitment of terrorists, and these women officers have impacted mothers and sisters in their areas. They have handled stressful situations well, expertly coordinated with various departments, and demonstrated soft skills in leadership,” ADGP Kumar said.
Pulwama SSP Nitya, who has done chemical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Raipur, and is the first one from her family to get into the civil services, said that people, especially women, have a lot of expectations from women officers, and although the duty of an officer is independent of gender, women expect women officers to be fair and transparent towards them.
She further said that she worked with the bigger goal of convincing people to come to the police and the administration with their problems and an expectation that these institutions would deal with their concerns with sensitivity and sincerity.
Besides, she outlined her three-pronged approach to confidence-building with people, saying that drug cases and cases against women are a top priority for her as Pulwama SSP.
“We have roped in civil society groups and NGOs to raise awareness, and besides policing and maintaining law and order in the district, our focus has been on three aspects — cyber crime, drugs-related crimes and crimes against women,” she told ThePrint.
Sopore SSP Dev said her gender has allowed her to bridge the trust deficit in Sopore — which was a significant problem earlier.
“As a woman officer, I have access to all sections of society, and it has helped me and the government to bridge the gap between people and the administration. Earlier, there was a trust deficit, and people were not looking to reach out, but with time, we have proved that we are there to listen to people’s problems on the ground, and hence, now we get a lot of public support, which helps in the maintenance of law and order in the district,” she said.
However, she said that her public outreach efforts have not resulted in her showing any leniency in following the policies of the UT administration.
“I have worked on deterrence, for which we have aggressively implemented the policy of Jammu and Kashmir Police of attaching properties of people who are harbouring militants and are repetitive offenders,” she said.
Shopian SSP Tanushree emphasised this carrot-and-stick approach, saying that while the police have under her promoted sports tournaments to keep youth away from militancy, they have also taken several people suspected to be influenced by militants into custody to pressure them out of it.
She said reducing recruitment of youth into militancy is her topmost priority. Since she arrived at Shopian in 2022, she has been working to achieve that goal with pre-emptive administrative moves, as well as public activities and functions to keep the youth engaged.
“We have worked extensively to reduce youth recruitment in Shopian because that keeps the militancy alive. To achieve this, we have worked with a carrot-and-stick approach. We have encouraged sports tournaments such as cricket, volleyball and martial arts to keep the youth engaged. At the same time, we preemptively identify youth who militants are trying to recruit,” Tanushree said.
“We work on them, try to talk to them, their mothers, sisters, and wives, and sometimes, also use enforcement mechanisms such as putting them in jail for a few weeks to break the chain of contacts between them and OGWs (over ground workers) of militants.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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