Army top generals stress upon deradicalisation of J&K youth
At a time when local recruitment of terrorists is on the rise in Jammu and Kashmir, the army’s top leadership has stressed the need to bring radicalised youth into the mainstream in the state, a senior army officer said on Friday.
The army brass also underlined the need to focus on de-radicalisation efforts and a “collective approach” to convince youth to shun violence and gun culture at the ongoing army commanders’ conference, said Lieutenant General AK Sharma, director general (staff duties). Army chief General Bipin Rawat is chairing the biannual conference that ends on Saturday.
It emerged on Monday that a soldier from Kashmir had gone missing and joined the Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit. Also, another Kashmiri soldier, Zahoor Ahmad Thokar, deserted his unit last July, took away his service rifle, and joined Hizbul, which is active in south Kashmir and has local youth in its ranks.
Sharma said top generals spent “considerable time” on reprioritising the force’s requirements to ensure that money allocated for “modernisation and capacity building” was used optimally. HT reported on April 16 that top commanders would try to figure out how to deal with a budget squeeze at a time the force is facing a “critical deficiency” of ammunition and how to best use the “limited budget.” According to the army, it is short of ₹6,380 crore to build ammunition stocks necessary for fighting an intense war for 10 days.
Facing a shortage of funds, the army could forego buying certain types of ammunition including rockets and missiles, despite holding low stocks, officials familiar with the force’s modernisation said.
This is hardly surprising as a recent parliamentary report revealed how poor budgetary outlay was coming in the way of emergency purchases and procuring critical ammunition. Army vice chief Lieutenant General Sarath Chand told the panel that Budget 2018-19 had dashed the army’s hopes and overall shortage under the capital head stood at ₹12,296 crore.
NEW DELHI: