Shesh Paul Vaid also known as S. P. Vaid, is an Indian police officer and former Director General of Police (DGP) of Jammu & Kashmir from 31 December 2016 till 6 September 2018.

Early life

Vaid was born and raised in the

Mahanpur Mahanpur (also called Pakhru Ge da Graan ) is a small town and a newly created tehsil in Kathua district of Jammu division, Jammu Division in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir, India. Earlier, Mahanpu ...

town of Kathua district in the Jammu Division of the erstwhile Indian state of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

in 1959 into an ethnic Dogra family. Vaid graduated in

Veterinary Science Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

(B.V.Sc) from

Madras Veterinary College The Madras Veterinary College, the college affiliated with Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, is a veterinary college in Vepery, a suburb of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The college was established on 1 October 1903 in a smal ...

in the

Vepery Vepery is a suburb in the north of Chennai, India. Abutting the transportation hub of Park Town, the neighbourhood covers a rectangular area north of the Poonamallee High Road. History Vepery is among those oldest neighbourhoods developed duri ...

neighbourhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu and then from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. He qualified for the Civil Services and was allotted the Indian Police Service (IPS) on 25 August 1986 with

cadre.

Career

From 1988 to 1990, he was the

Additional Superintendent of Police Police ranks of India Superintendent of police (SP) is a senior rank in the Indian Police Service (IPS). They wear a star and an Ashoka emblem on their epaulettes with 'IPS' below. The larger and more important districts in India are headed by ...

Badgam Budgam (), known as Badgom (; ) in Kashmiri, is a town in Budgam district in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. In the 2001 census, it was recorded as having a notified area committee,This gives the population of Budgam adgamN.A ...

and was promoted as Superintendent in the same district in 1990, the year when he faced maximum militant attacks. He also topped the International Commanders' programme at Police staff College at UK. S P Vaid at FBI (LA,USA)

In the course of his career, he has served as

Deputy Inspector General of Police A Deputy Inspector General of Police (abbreviated as DIG) is a high-ranking official position in Police in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. India Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) is a rank i ...

of Jammu, as

Inspector General An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is "inspectors general". Australia The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (Australia) (IGIS) is an independent statutory off ...

(Crime), IGP ( Home Guards and Civil Defence), as

Modernisation Police Headquarters, as Inspector General of Police of Jammu, as IGP Crime and

Railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

(2008) and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Traffic Jammu & Kashmir. In 2009, he was sent on deputation to Bureau of Police Research and Development(BPR&D) in New Delhi where he was initially posted as Director of Special Policing, then as Director of Training and in the last few months of his deputation as the Director of Administration. In February 2010, Dr. S P Vaid was also appointed as the new Secretary of Central Indian Police Service Association (CIPSA) as an additional central charge besides his assignment in Bureau of Police Research & Development. in June 2011, Dr Vaid was promoted to the senior Indian police rank of Additional Director General of Police. Consequently, he returned to his parent cadre in September 2011and in November 2011, the J&K State Cabinet ordered the posting of Vaid as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP),

Headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

(PHQ). On 3 March 2016, Vaid was promoted to the grade of Director General (DG), and was subsequently appointed as Director General of Police (Prisons). On 8 September 2016, Vaid was transferred and posted as Special DG (Coordination and Law & Order). The post of Special D.G Coordination held by S.K Mishra had been re-designated as Special DG (Coordination and Law & Order) till held by the officer. On 28 December 2016, The State Cabinet confirmed the name of S.P. Vaid as new Director General of Police (DGP) of Jammu and Kashmir Police. The decision was taken in the State Cabinet meeting headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Jammu. On 31 December 2016, Vaid took over the charge of Director General of Police from K. Rajendra Kumar.

Notable contributions to law and order in Kashmir

Vaid has played a role in many notable events in the state and made attempts to facilitate the improvement of law and order and police-community relations. * In December 1999 Vaid supervised the release from Kot Bhalwal jail of Pakistani

mujaheddin ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...

leader and the founder of the militant group

Jaish-e-Mohammed Jaish-e-Mohammed ( ur, , literally "The Army of Muhammad", abbreviated as JeM) is a Pakistan-based: "The JEM is a Pakistan-based, militant Islamic group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000." Deobandi: "Deobandis like Masood Azha ...

, Azhar Masood, who was exchanged for passengers on the hijacked

Indian Airlines Flight 814 Indian Airlines Flight 814, commonly known as IC 814, was an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 en route from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India, on Friday, 24 December 1999, whe ...

(IC-814). *On January 29, 2002, there was a specific information that a group of

Al-Badr Al Badr is a village in Mecca Province, in western Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making ...

militants were waiting for other terrorist associates to conduct a meeting to plan subversive activities in

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

. Vaid, then DIG of Police Range Srinagar planned a joint operation along with

BSF BSF may refer to: Organisations * Ballerup-Skovlunde Fodbold, a Danish football club * British Skin Foundation, a UK charity raising money for skin disease and skin cancer research * Bibliothèques Sans Frontières, an international non profit * ...

and J&K Police SOG to apprehend the militants. The same night Vaid got the area cordoned off with the help of BSF/SOG and local police so as to ensure that militants do not escape during night taking the advantage of darkness. The held up militants tried to take the BSF personnel hostage who were trapped inside but an assault was launched by Vaid along with other officers and in the process managed to rescue one BSF Jawan. In an official statement from the President's Secretariat, the President of India awarded Vaid the President's Police Medal for gallantry: *In August 2006 the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported about Vaid's involvement in a project with state-owned

Bharat Petroleum Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It operates three refineries in Bina, Kochi and Mumbai. BPCL is In ...

to employ family members of the approximately 1,000 Jammu and Kashmir policemen who have died fighting separatists. *In December 2006, as IGP Jammu, Vaid supervised the operation against the militants and regained control of the Kot Bhalwal prison following seven-hour clashes with more than 300 prisoners after the situation within the jail went out of control. *Vaid served as a chairman of the session, "Regional Cooperation to Fight Terrorism", at the March 2009 Asia Pacific Regional Conference of The World Federation of United Nations Associations.Conference programme
/ref> *In December 2011, Vaid inaugurated 2nd Police Martyr's Memorial North Zone Inter Club T-20 Cricket Championship 2011–12 in Kathua district of J&K. This tournament is said to have served the dual purpose of better Police-Public relations and honour to Martyr's families. *In the

Burhan aftermath Burhan ( ar, برهان, ) is an Arabic male name, an epithet of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It is especially popular in Turkey, as it respects Turkish language, Turkish vowel harmony and the end syllable "-han" can be interpreted as the Turki ...

of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen Commander, Burhan Wani in 2016, law and order situation in the Valley had spiralled out of control and the state government, while taking a serious note of it, shifted Vaid from the position of DG (prisons) and to Special DG (Law and order). After taking over the charge, Vaid 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. Vaid has been credited for playing an important role in restoring peace and normalcy in the valley.

Assassination attempts

While

, Baramulla range in the

Kashmir Valley The Kashmir Valley, also known as the ''Vale of Kashmir'', is an intermontane valley concentrated in the Kashmir Division of the Indian- union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The valley is bounded on the southwest by the Pir Panjal Range and ...

, Vaid suffered a severe hand injury in March 1999 when 25 militants ambushed his car and two escort gypsies on the national highway, on his way to Baramulla after a review meeting at

where he was officiating as

. The militants, aware that his car was

bullet-proof Bulletproofing is the process of making an object capable of stopping a bullet or similar high velocity projectiles (e.g. Fragmentation (weaponry), shrapnel). The term bullet resistance is often preferred because few, if any, practical materials ...

, hurled hand-grenades and used powerful universal machine guns which pierce through bullet-proof glass, instead of the commonly used AK-47s. In 1990, while Superintendent in

, Vaid was accompanying his wife along with their month-old daughter from Gulmarg to Badgam. Militants attacked the convoy killing two army men in the vehicle in front of his car. The apprehended militants later admitted that the attack was meant to assassinate him.

Positions held

References