‘95 youth turned to militancy in one year’
TAKING STOCK IGP says law and order situation under control in north and central Kashmir, blames LeT and Hizbul for bank robberies
There are around 200 militants active in Kashmir Valley at present, with around 110 of them being local youth, inspector general of police (IGP), Kashmir, SJM Gillani said at a press conference in Srinagar on Monday.
He said the law and order situation was under control in north and central Kashmir but the same could not be said about some areas of south Kashmir.
Gillani also revealed that as many as 95 Kashmiri youth joined militancy during the last one year. “There are over 200 militants active in Kashmir. Ninetyfive youth joined the militant ranks in the past year,” he said.
The IGP said frequent uploading of videos on social media by militants was “psychological warfare” and blocking social media sites was one of the steps to check it. He added that anti-insurgency operations in Kashmir were continuing on a day-to-day basis and the fear of dealing with a violent crowd has not stopped security forces from taking action against militants. and normal work had resumed in most school and colleges. Gillani added that while investigating a protest in north Kashmir's Handwara area on Saturday, police found evidence that some students were paid and instigated to disrupt normal life.
“There were 28 incidents of students indulging in lawlessness. We are trying to counsel them and their parents so their careers are not spoilt,” he said. On the recent spate of bank robberies in the Valley, the IGP said militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen were behind the acts. He said the militants had been identified by checking the CCTV footage and interrogating eyewitnesses. One of them known as Abu Ali was killed in a recent encounter. Gillani also addressed the issue of killing of political workers, saying a lawyer, working as an overground worker for a militant outfit, was arrested for the murder of PDP leader Abdul Gani Dar. On the social media ban imposed by the government, Gillani said the impact of the ban will be assessed at the end of the onemonth period. “After the onemonth period, the ban on social media will be reviewed,” he said. The government had imposed a ban on 22 websites and social media applications last month.
Residents of south Kashmir’s Bijbehara area, the ancestral base of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, alleged that soldiers from a Rashtriya Rifles unit were visiting households and collecting details of people living there, including toddlers and infants.
The soldiers put a sign on the door of the house after gathering the information.
The people are not happy with the door-to-door survey, saying the exercise was intimidating and breached their privacy.
“Soldiers have been coming and asking minute details such as the number of family members, their names, occupation, age, gender and all other things, village after village in the area,” said a resident of Bijbehara in Anantnag district.
An army officer defended such exercises as “routine” and conducted occasionally by army units to know their neighbours. “The army maintains a general record of people living around camps and it is updated regularly. It is being done in consultation with the civil administration. The survey helps when something (untoward) happens,” he said.