Army, police officials discuss ways to stop militant recruitment

SRINAGAR : A high level security meet of the top army and police officials was held in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Tuesday to discuss the new recruitment of militants.

This comes few days after militants had released a group photograph of 14 militants who recently joined militant rank, however, their names were not mentioned.

Army’s General Officer Commanding, 15 Corps, AK Bhat, Jammu and Kashmir’s director general of police SP Vaid and inspector general of police Swam Prakash Pani participated in the meeting.

“We discussed in the meeting how new recruitments could be prevented,’’ GOC, 15 Corps, AK Bhat told the reporters.

In the meeting, local officers informed the top officials about ground situation and youth who had recently joined the militancy. Most of the youth who have picked up guns are from four districts of south Kashmir – Shopian, Pulwama, Anantnag and Kulgam.

The commander also gave details about the gunfight in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, adding that it was an infiltration attempt from across the Line of Control (LOC) which he said had been foiled.

“We are searching for the remaining militants there,” he said.j&k police chief SP Vaid, who also attended the meeting, said it was held with ground level officers to review the situation in the Kashmir valley.

He said meeting discussed the support in terms of manpower and logistics which needed to be given to the ground forces to normalise the situation in south Kashmir, which has become a hotbed of militant activities. “It’s not that we are sitting idle. We brought many boys back who were brainwashed to join militancy,’’ said a police officer posted in north Kashmir.