Talk of his transfer was doing the rounds for a while, with reports that Mehbooba Mufti wanted to remove him amid a fresh spurt in violence in the Valley.
New Delhi: Jammu & Kashmir director general of police (DGP) Shesh Paul Vaid has been transferred as security arrangements gather pace for next month’s panchayat and urban local body polls in the restive state.
Vaid had assumed office on 31 December, 2016, succeeding K. Rajendra Kumar.
Sources said former Kashmir inspector general S.M. Sahai was being discussed as Vaid’s likely successor. Until a name is finalised, DGP (prisons) Dilbag Singh will hold the charge, the transfer order said.
A veteran policeman who has served in the state’s most volatile areas, Vaid has won several plaudits for his service, including the President’s police medal.
Vaid was appointed to the post after he handled the unrest that followed the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in the summer of 2016.
He was then the special director general (law and order), and was tasked with focusing on local youth inclined towards militancy in the wake of Wani’s death.
Wani, who ushered in the era of the social media-savvy militant parading his antics for public consumption, is said to have had deep influence on local youngsters, especially in the hotbed of Kashmir’s home-bred insurgency in the Valley’s south.
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“My mission is to convince the youth of Jammu & Kashmir to choose the path of peace,” he had said at the time, “Violence will only lead to pain and agony.”
The transfer order, issued Thursday, said Vaid will now serve as the state’s transport commissioner.
Long time coming
Talk of Vaid’s removal as DGP had been doing the rounds since before the Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government collapsed in June.
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There were reports that former chief minister Mehbooba wanted to remove him amid a fresh spurt in violence in the Valley, which, among other instances, has seen a tourist die in stonepelting and unprecedented attacks on two school buses in the Valley.
Around the same time, on 1 April, 20 people — 13 militants, four policemen and three civilians — were killed in south Kashmir in three separate encounters, the worst such episode in recent times.
Since the PDP-BJP government collapsed – the state is currently under governor’s rule – the violence in south Kashmir has only escalated, with the latest phase involving a direct attack on the state’s police personnel.
Just recently, 10 relatives of J&K policemen were allegedly abducted by militants from south Kashmir, although four were subsequently released.
This came a day after Hizbul chief of operations Riyaz Naikoo’s father was arrested by police. Militants have of late also issued threat notes to local policemen, asking them to either resign or be ready to die.
Vaid, who belongs to Kathua, is the second officer from Jammu to have risen to the post of DGP after M.M. Khajuria, who held the position in 1985.
Sahai’s appointment as Vaid’s successor has not been officially confirmed yet. Though he is not from the state, he has a long experience of service in J&K.
As the IG Kashmir, Sahai is known to have brought Kashmir out of unrest in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013.