Case against Rashtriya Rifles after raids on police station

Following strong protests by the police over quot;unbecoming behaviourquot; of the Rashtriya Rifles troops, the Army promised an inquiry into the conduct of its officers involved in the raids on the intervening night of September 18/19.

Troops of Rashtriya Rifles conducted raids on the Beerwah police station and the battalion headquarters of the CRPF in connection with September 12 attack by a two-member fidayeen suicidal squad of Lashker-e-Toiba and Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen on a Rashtriya Rifles camp in Badgam district of central Kashmir in which 15 Armymen including a major were killed.

The Army suspected involvement of policemen in harbouring militants. It also conducted an identification parade of policemen and raided the residential quarter inside the police station premises.

The police sources alleged that raids were an attempt by the Rashtriya Rifles to cover up its failures in preventing the attack as it had specific intelligence suggesting an attack by militants. But, the Army personnel took the report lightly, the sources added.

quot;They found nothing because the whole search operation was a ploy to cover up their own failures and shift blame on others,quot; they claimed.