Indian police train Kashmir villagers to help secure border with Pakistan

Special police officers are local recruits who mainly work in intelligence gathering and counter-insurgency, but in recent years have helped in border areas

The volatile frontier between India and Pakistan has been silent since February, when the two nuclear-armed nations reaffirmed a 2003 ceasefire accord

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Special police officer recruits who completed nearly three months of physical training demonstrate their skills at Kathua in Indian-controlled Kashmir earlier this month. Photo: AP

Published: 8:00pm, 23 Jun 2021Updated: 8:00pm, 23 Jun 2021

For nearly three months, from dusk to dawn, Rita Devi has followed a similar drill. Her day begins with physical training, followed by classes on border management and on collaborating with police and border guards in the event of skirmishes along the frontier between India and Pakistan. Towards evening, she receives training in weapon handling and law and order.

Devi, along with 73 other young men and women, is working hard to become a “special police officer” to assist law enforcement officers in dozens of mountain villages in the frontier district of Kathua in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan also controls part of Kashmir, which is claimed by both countries.

Devi said she always wanted to join the police. “This position will allow me to help people,” she said.

Special police officer recruits train at Kathua in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Photo: AP

Special police officers are mainly recruited for intelligence gathering and counter-insurgency operations. But in recent years, the lower-ranked officers have assisted in border areas as well because of local recruits’ familiarity with the topography and ability to assist police and border guards during emergencies.

The armies of India and Pakistan guard a highly militarised de facto border called the Line of Control that divides the two parts of Kashmir. A lower-altitude 200km-long (125-mile) boundary separates Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab. India refers to this somewhat-defined portion as an “international border” and Pakistan calls it a “working boundary”. Kathua borders Pakistani Punjab.