On Police - Military Cooperation...

Well, I thought, let me write something different this time. We've all interacted with the police at various times during our lifetime, and I'll list two of my interactions that stood out. You be the judge.

Gujjar Agitation, Rajasthan, 2007.
I was the commander ( a major) of one of the army columns sent to assist the civil administration when the Gujjars (caste / tribe in Rajasthan) decided to block the National Highway between Jaipur and Agra for their perceived grievances. Among others, one of the districts where life had practically ground to a halt was 'Karauli', which we had to stabilize. Well, we reached the district headquarters after a five hour drive from Alwar, one officer, three JCOs(warrant officers) and 75 men in  our army trucks and jeeps. All along, we found groups of (senior) police officers huddled inside various buildings trying to figure out a way to break the deadlock (just the previous day, an attempt to forcibly remove the 30,000 odd Gujjars from the national highway had been unsuccessful, with many a policeman beaten up by the mob), We found the district SP (Superintendent of Police) holed up in his office and looking distinctly scared. So I told him that we should go around the district and decide on an action plan to get things back to normal. He refused and said that it was unsafe to go out. I did manage to convince him a couple of days later, and he moved out, with a truck-full each of policemen ahead of, and behind his car. During one of our patrols, when I entered a police station in a fairly big town in the district, I found a DIG of police (Deputy Inspector General, equivalent to an army Brigadier ) sitting on the Inspector's chair. The moment he saw me, he said with relief  "..thank God you're here. The police station is under grave threat. I've deployed four companies of policemen to protect us. We(I) need protection so why don't you deploy your army column around the station? The people won't mess with you.." I told him that we were there to restore peace, and not to protect the police in the riot affected district, but he was not convinced...

Counter Insurgency Operations, Baramula District, 2011
This was during the period of intense civil agitation in the Kashmir valley when I was commanding my regiment. We were responsible to run the convoy from Srinagar to one of the outlying towns, 90 km away. One day, my column commander, a major, called me on my phone and told me that the convoy had been stopped by a posse of policemen near Baramula and a DSP(deputy Superintendant of Police, equivalent to a Captain) had placed his men on the road, blocking the army vehicles. Stopping a military convoy on the road is unsafe - a static convoy of vehicles in a hostile area with threat of stand-off attacks is vulnerable and is practically a dead duck. The police officer said that some hired trucks in the convoy were suspected to be carrying illegal timber and he needed to check them. On hearing this, I told my officer to move the convoy immediately, grab the police officer by his collar and shove him into the major's Jeep, and take him to Srinagar. The trucks could then be safely checked inside the convoy ground. I also called my brigade commander and GOC(General Officer Commanding) and informed them. (We subsequently didn't have to carry the police officer to Srinagar, and next day, the local DIG apologized to the General for trying to stop the convoy.)

 I wonder why police officers in this country behave the way they do? And if this is the way they behave with the army, I wonder what they do with the public!!