How J&K cops used a novel strategy to nab stone-pelters in Srinagar

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday revisited an eight-year-old strategy to nab stone-pelters - they disguised themselves as stone-pelters, reported news agency PTI.
The move implemented Friday yielded immediate results. Law enforcement managed to nab four stone-pelters leading a 100-plus mob of people in downtown Jama Masjid in Srinagar, said a statement form the J&K police, issued late Friday.
What happened was that after Friday prayers at Jama Masjid, a crowd of people started pelting stones at the police and at CRPF personnel.The crowd swelled to a mob of more than a 100 people with two repeat-offender stone-pelters leading the agitation.
Then, to the complete surprise of the four stone-pelters, they were grabbed by policemen who were disguised as them and had been covertly placed among them. The astonished men were whisked away to vehicles waiting to take them to a police station.
Police said a toy gun was recovered from one of the arrested stone-pelters. While PTI earlier reported that the police used toy guns to keep the crowd at bay during the arrest, the police statement made no mention of that.
Not only did the move to catch stone-pelters yield arrests, it also led to the protest ending early, with the crowd completely perplexed about what was happening.
The J&K police used the same method in 2010 when scores of them were deployed within a mob to identify and arrest stone pelters.
Two years ago, a similar strategy was adopted by the Israel Defence Force. In a video that went viral, a group of Israeli policemen are seen infiltrating a crowd of Palestinian stone pelters and arresting many of them.
(With inputs from agencies)