Indian Police Officers Shed Uniform Join Kashmiri Fighters
SRINAGAR, India, May 14 (News Agencies) - Two Indian police officers discarded their uniforms, joined a Muslim separatist outfit and vowed to fight security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said Monday.
A police spokesman said that Majid Bhat and Riyaz Ahmed who worked as special police officers deserted the force stationed in Kashmir's Kulgam district, some 70 kilometers (42 miles) south of the state capital Srinagar.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of the powerful Kashmiri Hizbul Mujahideen outfit confirmed that the two had joined them.
"Both of them, along with arms and some important documents, have surrendered," he said.
"They were working with the Special Operation Group of the Kashmir Police, [and] took an oath of loyalty to work now onwards for the cause of freedom," the Hizbul spokesman said.
Bhat and Ahmed were both former Kashmiri fightes who had joined the pro-India movement in 1996. They later became special police officers involved in counter-insurgency activities.
More than 100 former Kashmiri fighters who had turned pro-government have been killed in Kashmir by suspected Kashmiri outfits since November 2000.
An insurgency is continuing in the Indian part of Kashmir. More than 34,000 people have died in violent incidents in the Himalayan region since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of fuelling the unrest. Islamabad denies the charge.
