Indian govt rushes weapons and tear gas - not medicines or food - to Kashmir

IAF drops planeloads of arms to troops in Kashmir


http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6270&Itemid=1
Saturday August 30


Rising Kashmir MonitoringNew Delhi, Aug 29: The Indian Air Force is rushing planeloads of arms to troops and paramilitary troopers in Jammu and Kashmir from places as far as the Northeast and Tamil Nadu.
The AN-32s are bringing in canes and tear smoke canisters.New Delhi has arranged for "solidified plastic canes" to be flown in by the Indian Air Force along with surplus tear smoke canisters from south Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam.Having fired close to 10,000 tear smoke canisters at the peaceful protestors in Kashmir in the past few days and beaten tens of thousands of protesters, the CRPF has exhausted its stocks. Ditto for the state police."When most of force has been deployed for counter-insurgency duty, how can the CRPF be equipped for law-and-order problems? We just planned our stocks," a senior CRPF official said.Sources said there were fewer law-and-order problems in some states and so surplus stocks were available. Every state's police get monthly stocks of tear smoke canisters, but not all of them need to fire these too often.Bengal, where the need to control unruly mobs never goes out of fashion, may learn its lessons from Kashmir. The plight of troopers in the northern state – and the shape the Singur siege is taking -- could well prompt the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to consider stocking up on canes and tear smoke canisters.The batons Bengal police now use are made mostly of cane, fibreglass and wood, and are sourced from the Defence Research and Development Organisation, but the government might toy with the idea of using solidified plastic too.However, in Jammu and Kashmir, the troopers are bracing for a long haul and have called for extra stocks from other states.India’s only tear-gas factory at Tekanpur near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, has shut down production for a month – a yearly routine during the monsoon -- because of humidity.Experts, however, have held out hope of production resuming soon.The factory is controlled by the home ministry and receives technical guidance from the Bureau of Police Research and Development.