MHA has sanctioned additional 10,000 SPO posts for Kashmir, says Rajnath Singh

Home Minsiter Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sanctioned additional 10,000 Special Police Officers (SPO) posts for Jammu and Kashmir. He also said that the youth in Jammu and Kashmir are turning out in large numbers for SPO jobs.

On Wednesday, defying the separatists’ call of agitation, around 500 Kashmiri youths had turned up for an Army recruitment rally in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, one of the worst-hit places in the ongoing unrest in the Valley.

Jammu and Kashmir youth turning out in large numbers for SPO jobs. MHA has sanctioned additional 10000 SPO posts for the state. https://t.co/lzBRoJcm9U

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) September 22, 2016

“Over 500 youths took part in today’s recruitment rally which took place at Anantnag High Grounds,” an Army official said. He said the recruitment rallies in south Kashmir would continue till September 25. The official said more than 12,000 youths across Kashmir have applied online under the recruitment process.

“The number of applicants could have been more had there been no problems in the internet connectivity in the Valley,” he said. The Army’s recruitment drive would move north from September 29, when such a rally would be held in Bandipora district.

Anantnag is one of the worst-hit districts in the current unrest in the Valley. Violence broke out in the state in the aftermath of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.

While mobile internet was snapped across Kashmir on July 9, authorities have cut wire-line internet in the Valley on a few occasions. As many as 81 people, including two cops, have lost their lives in over two-month-long violence in the Valley.

(With inputs from PTI)