Srinagar:
Jammu and Kashmir Police have launched a recruitment drive. And for 300 police jobs, nearly 8,000 young applicants turned up in Srinagar. This was the first on-the-spot recruitment drive in the city in 20 years.
"In the morning we heard the DGP announcing the recruitment drive and we came running to the venue," said Danish, an aspirant.
"I want a job. I have been waiting here from 6 am," said Yasir, another young lad from the city.
In a place where khaki was like red rag to the bull and mere presence of policeman would trigger protests, thousands today turned up in downtown Srinagar to join the police. It was perhaps an indication of changing times in Kashmir.
The police-civilian relations had particularly worsened last summer when cops clashed on a daily basis with stone-pelting mobs: 111 people died in the conflict including children - deaths that repeatedly brought the Valley to a halt.
And Srinagar, a separatist bastion, was the epicentre of this crisis.
"We generally found during the summer crisis of law and order that Srinagar is highly under-represented in police and we found that some headway has to be made to get some youth into our ranks. I always knew that the youth is on our side. Some of them were getting mislead. And they here in numbers you can see for yourself. They have turned up in thousands," said Kuldeep Khoda, Director General of Police, Jammu & Kashmir.