Inspector General of Police (IGP) Technical Services (PHQ), Mr. H. K. Lohia said that respect of human rights is respect of natural, constitutional laws of a responsible society and exhorted that Police has a great role to protect the rights of citizens and safeguard their dignity.Lohia was speaking at the inaugural session of day long annual Debate Competition on Human Rights, organised by Jammu and Kashmir Police Telecommunication Wing at Armed Police Complex here today. He said that respect for human rights is constitutional and moral duty of men in uniform. “Any violation of human rights by the personnel destroys the public faith in governance and it is the legitimate duty of every responsible official to defend the rights of citizens”, said Mr. Lohia.In all 16 speakers from different wings of the Police Organization including CID, Crime, Home-guards, Security, Traffic, Railways and Telecommunication, besides Police Headquarters participated in the debate.Mr. Lohia emphasised the need to organise such debates at lower levels to educate the men and officers working in the field about their duty to respect human rights. He said that people’s awareness about their rights is also mandatory to keep the system on right track. JKP is much concerned about the issue and has introduced human rights as a subject in its training syllabus to educate the personnel by imparting specialized training on the subject, he added.
IGP, J&K Telecommunication, Mr. Mubarak Ahmed Ganai, who presided over the daylong debate, while deliberating on the topic said that JKP has a great responsibility to honour human rights of the people, and dedicated efforts need to be put to fulfill this responsibility .He reminded the “men in Khaki” that they have been administered an oath to safeguard the rights of the people and they should ensure to uphold this oath . The civil society has great expectations from the force and we have to come up to their expectations to achieve better results, Mr. Ganai added. A jury comprising of Director Prosecution PHQ, Mr. Pawan Gupta, Jt. Director Prosecution PHQ, Mir Gowhar Hussain, SSsP, Ms. Anita Sharma, Ms. Mumta Sharma and Mr. M. Y. Kichloo adjudged the performance of participants in the Debate. Sub-Inspector Miraj-ud-din of Traffic, Inspector PHQ, Mr. Riyaz Ahmed and Dy. SP Security J&K, Mr. Koshal Kumar were declared as first, second and third respectively, while as PHQ was declared as winning and J&K Security as runner up teams. Cash prizes were also distributed among the position winning and runner up teams.Among others, the day long debate was also attended by Director Telecom J&K, Mr. Hilal Ahmed, SSsP, Rajender Singh Samyal, Javaid Mattoo, Rakesh Dhar and D. P. Singh, SO to IGP, Telecom, Mohammad Rafiq, SP Telecom, Javaid Ahmed, Dy. SP Musadiq Basu and other officers of Telecom and other wings of the Organization.