Manmohan Singh asks police to evolve effective crowd control measures in Kashmir

NEW DELHI - Prime Minster Dr. Manmohan Singh on Thursday said that despite the curtailment of militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir, the public order dimension in the State has become a cause for serious concern and called for evolving new crowd control methods.

Addressing the second-day session of the 45th conference of Director Generals Of Police and other senior security officials here, Dr. Manmohan Singh said: ” We need to revisit standard operating procedures and crowd control measures to deal with public agitations with non-lethal, yet effective and more focused measures.”

Dr. Singh asked Home Minister P. Chidamabaram to establish a high-powered task force to come out with a set of recommendations on non-lethal crowd control measures in the next two to three months.

He said that instead of single standard sequence for the use of force, other countries have put in place procedures that vary according to the situation.

“We also cannot have an approach of one size fits all. For instance, I understand that instead of a single standard sequence for the use of force, other countries have put in place procedures that vary according to the specific needs in different situations,” he added.

He cited the experience of Rapid Action Force for non-lethal crowd control, which has been successful saying it, should be examined for being followed by other police forces also. (ANI)