The Jammu and Kashmir Police on thursday  imposed a ban on use of smartphones by sentries following  a surge in rifle snatching incidents in the valley. The Police, in its order has  said that sentries remain occupied with the smart phones thereby compromising with their legitimate duty.

“It has been observed that recent weapon snatching incidents have occurred due to the reason that sentries on duty remain engaged with their smart phones for most of the time thereby compromising with their legitimate duty. This tendency has considerably increased and resulted in weapon snatching/killing of police cops in the state, particularly in the Valley,” said an order issued by Additional Director General of Police Armed JK, AK Choudhary.

The order comes a day after a special police officer deserted  with a rifle from the residence of a BJP leader in north Kashmir.