SP Vaid, Who Tackled Post-Wani Unrest, to Be New J&K Police Chief

Vaid will hold office till October 2019.

File photo of people in Kashmir attending Burhan Wani’s funeral after defying curfew. (Photo: Reuters)

SP Vaid, a highly decorated police officer who helped tackle the recent unrest in the region, was on Wednesday appointed the new Director General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir.

The 57-year-old 1986-batch IPS officer, who is currently the Special Director General (Law and Order), will hold office till October 2019.

Also Read: How Burhan Wani’s Killing Prompted Shift in Counter-Insurgency Ops

The state, according to intelligence reports, has more than 200 local and foreign militants with infiltration and local recruitment crossing all previous records.

In the aftermath of the killing of Wani, law and order situation in the Valley had spiralled out of control and the state government, while taking a serious note of it, shifted him from the position of DG (prisons) and made him Special DG (Law and order).

After taking over the charge, he camped in the Kashmir region and initiated various measures to make optimum use of the force so as to check rising casualties of both civilians and security forces through police-public interaction programmes in almost all districts of the Valley.

I will ensure that no common man is harassed. My idea is to make police force more and more people friendly.

Vaid was seriously injured when militants ambushed his vehicle in March 1999 near Sopore crossing on Srinagar- Baramulla Highway. He was the then range DIG of Baramulla- Kupwara in North Kashmir.

(With inputs from PTI)