A lonely guard in Azamgarh

This police station in Saraineer village,he says,was set up in 1942 and has under its jurisdiction 113 villages,including Sanjarpur,Binapara,Para and Kauragahani. And all of them have been in the news for alleged terror links. If Sanjarpur hit the headlines after the Batla House encounter,Abu Bashar,who is an accused in the Gujarat blasts case,is from Binapara. Arif,Shadiq and Zakir,whose names have figured in the Mumbai blast cases,are from Israuli,Para and Kauragahani villages.

These days,the Saraimeer thana receives at least one police team every month from Maharashtra,Delhi and Gujarat in connection with investigations into different terror blast cases.

So it’s not easy being a police officer in Saraimeer,Singh says. Even routine,administrative work is treated differently. “It’s difficult to be an SHO here. I have to maintain records of all people who are accused in different cases,” says Singh.

After every such arrest,Azamgarh huddles nervously in the spotlight,a mix of anger,distrust and suspicion about being called the ‘nursery of terror’. “After any such arrest,we face a law-and-order problem. We always keep our anti-riot equipment ready,” says Singh,who has completed two years in this thana.

That doesn’t make these cops too popular among the people of these Azamgarh villages. The police also find it difficult to develop their own intelligence network among the villagers. “The villagers are suspicious when we visit them and do not talk to us. They ask us a number of counter-questions before replying to our questions,” says a police constable who doesn’t want to be named.

Saraimeer and the neighbouing Beenapura are among the more prosperous villages of the district. Almost every family has sent one of its members to work in the Middle-East. Saraimeer even has a ‘notified customs shop’ that stocks on foreign goods.

A big fallout of the terror links is that the passport police verification,done before passports are issued,has become more stringent. “We receive at least 150 applications from the Passport Office every month. In the present situation,you cannot clear any such application without crosschecking the antecedents of the applicants,” says Singh. “But it’s difficult to get the villagers to speak. They are suspicious about us and are worried if being honest with us will spoil their chances. For instance,no one fills that column in the passport form that asks if the applicant has a relative in a foreign country.”

But Singh has developed his own method to verify the identity of applicants. “I keep the voters’ list with me and crosscheck the photographs of the applicants with those in the voters’ list,” he says,looking pleased with himself.

But like Singh has said for a countless time now,it’s a difficult job. There is also the problem of shortage of staff. Besides SHO Singh,the Saraimeer police station has one sub-inspector and 29 constables. Also,of the 113 villages that fall under the thana’s jurisdiction,about 70 villages have no chowkidars,the men who act as a link between the police and the villagers. “We have requested the administration to select chowkidars in all the villages of Saraimeer,” Singh says,before turning his attention to the passport applications on his table.