In the fallout of a Special Police Officer (SPO) decamping with nine service rifles in Srinagar, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday barred all SPOs from performing duties of personal security guards to VIPs. In a written communique, the additional director general of police (DGP) ordered the immediate withdrawal of SPOs except for SPO drivers from performing the duties of personal security officers (PSO) to protected persons. “It has been observed that some SPOs are performing the PSO duties with protected persons, which is not in accordance with the security norms. They are not trained to perform the PSO duties,” the directions from (additional DGP) Muneer Khan read. Read More | India vs West Indies 1st Test at Rajkot LIVE: Virat Kohli wins toss, elects to bat first; Kuldeep Yadav starts “All SPOs, except SPO drivers attached with protected persons, be immediately withdrawn,” the statement read. The district police have been asked to furnish the list of the withdrawn SPOs to the Srinagar police headquarters by Friday. On September 29, an SPO belonging to the Jammu and Kashmir Police decamped from a PDP MLA Aijaz Ahmad’s guard room at Jawahar Nagar with nine service rifles, the police said. The SPO was identified as Adil Bashir. Also Read | Canada revokes honorary citizenship of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi Bashir was posted as an SPO on March 11 in 2017. Following the incident, a high alert has been sounded across Srinagar to nab the SPO. A special investigation team has been constituted to investigate the matter. According to a daily, Bashir’s picture joining the Hizbul Mujahideen was released on social media a few days ago.

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