J&K Orders Mass Installation of CCTV Cameras As Militancy Peaks

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) administration has directed businesses to install high-resolution closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras due to the increasing attacks by militants in the region.

According to an order issued by Srinagar district magistrate Mohammad Aijaz, all establishments and market associations have been directed to install security cameras in the next 14 days failing which action would be taken against them. “The cameras should be installed/located in such a way that they should cover the approach areas at the entry and exit points of establishment/market association of shops and also entry and exit points of parking lots of the establishment/market association of shops up to a distance of 40 metres,” the order read. 

The CCTV cameras should be of a quality specified in the order available to law enforcement agencies whenever they demand it. “Any contravention of this order shall attract legal consequences as are contemplated under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860,” the order stated.

Businesses and shop owners have also been asked to inform the nearest police station, in case, they witness any “suspicious movement or activity” through the CCTVs.

The order comes following several attacks on non-locals, minority communities and Panchayati Raj Institution members by militants, triggering a wave of insecurity and a “prevailing persistent threat” from the “anti-national and subversive elements”.

Srinagar has become a hotspot of violence with increasing attacks by militants in the last two years. After remaining dormant for nearly a decade, the summer capital witnessed a series of shocking killings in which members of a minority community and policemen were shot dead by militants from point-blank range. Many wanted militants have also been killed by the security forces in and around Srinagar in the last one year.

According to the order, all financial/business establishments like banks/ATMs, jewellery shops, fuel stations, shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, cinema halls, wine and beer shops, eating joints, readymade garment shops, showrooms, small markets, educational institutions, places of worship, bus stands, railway stations, airports, hospitals and offices and places where transactions are held in cash or are frequented by 50 people or more at a time should install CCTV cameras to cover the outer areas.

Though many shop owners and officials, especially in Srinagar, have installed CCTV cameras, including at their residences, a majority of them consider it a breach of privacy. “There is already a heavy presence of security forces in the markets and so much surveillance. I don’t know what installing CCTV cameras at my expense will achieve,” a shopkeeper from Lal Chowk told Newsclick.