Head of state won’t talk to separatists: Rawat
ENGAGEMENT Army chief tells separatists to approach the interlocutor for dialogue in J&K
JAMMU: Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday ruled out the possibility of the Centre’s direct talks with Kashmiri separatists and terrorists. “To say that the head of the state will come and talk to these terrorists, I do not think that is going to happen,” Rawat told journalists after attending a seminar on internal security at Mamun Cantonment in Punjab’s Pathankot.
He said former Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma, who was in 2017 named as the Centre’s special representative for dialogue with all sections of the society in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), has been appointed for the purpose.
Rawat’s statement came days after former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday referred to India’s participation in a meeting on Afghanistan at Moscow that included the Taliban and asked why was not a similar engagement possible in his state. Russia hosted the second such meeting on Friday in which India participated at the “non-official level” with retired ambassadors TCA Raghavan and Amar Sinha representing it.
J&K’s mainstream political parties, including Abdullah’s National Conference and former chief minister Mehbooba Muftiled People’s Democratic Party, favour dialogue with the separatists as well as Pakistan to settle the Kashmir issue. India has maintained that there can be no talks with Islamabad as long as it backs militancy in J&K.
Rawat called the government’s
› To say that the head of the state will talk to terrorists, I do not think that is going to happen. We will not allow terrorists to create violence...
GENERAL BIPIN RAWAT, Army chief
policy “very clear-cut” over the issue. “We will not allow terrorists to create violence in our society… Therefore anybody who creates the violence will be neutralised. At the same time, an interlocutor (Sharma) has been tasked to speak to various people in the (Kashmir) Valley,’’ said Rawat. He said Sharma was talking to the people. “He is saying that he is open to everybody and anybody, who wants to speak to him, can go to him. Who says talks are not going on?”
Rawat said if the separatists do not want to listen to Sharma and to approach him, then he does not know what further do they hope. “We are doing indirect talks…”
He reiterated his warning to those, who disrupt anti-terror operations in the state, saying they will be dealt with sternly. “Terrorists… are creating violence in your society… the security forces come to neutralise them. If you are preventing armed forces from neutralising terrorists and allowing them to escape, then what are you? You are also a supporter of terrorists and have to be dealt with accordingly,” he said, referring to frequent protests at the scenes of anti-terror operations in Kashmir. Rawat said it was not worth joining the insurgency. “…you will not live long. We are giving you an opportunity to surrender and give up guns. If people do not behave and continue the violence, the only element left is to neutralise them.”