Civilian killings: For first time in 30 years, women frisked at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk

A woman said she had no issues with the frisking but the manner in which it was done

A woman paramilitary trooper frisks a woman during a random search in Srinagar on October 18, 2021, as security has been beefed-up a day after two labourers from Bihar were killed by gunmen, police said. Credit: AFP Photo

Women were frisked by female CRPF constables in the Lal Chowk area of the city, a first of its kind exercise in the last 30 years, in the wake of civilian killings in Kashmir.

The CRPF women checked the bags of female folk passing through the city centre Lal Chowk.

While there was no resistance, some women expressed resentment, saying the exercise could have been done away from the public glare.

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"Women carry many things which they keep private... The CRPF women should have erected a makeshift cubicle so that privacy was maintained," Fareeda, a woman from Soura, said.

She said she had no issues with the frisking but the manner in which it was done.

The frisking of women folk has not been done before in Kashmir and is being undertaken following a spate of civilian killings in which non-local labourers have been targeted over the last few days.

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