‘Militancy, infiltration down, surrenders up’
Political killings act of desperation
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 12: Northern Command chief Lt Gen YK Joshi said today that revocation of Article 370 was for `Ek Bharat’ after which Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed lot of development and grievances of the people are being addressed and maintained that militancy, local recruitments, infiltration have gone down while top leadership of the militants has been eliminated, many OGWs arrested and number of others have surrendered.
In an interview to Times Now, he said the killings of politicians are an act of desperation by the militants as their large number of colleagues including top leadership of various outfits has been killed during last 18 months.
“In the last 18 months, we have killed over 270 terrorists. There has been zero infiltration this year. In an act of desperation, the militants are targeting politicians,” Lt Gen YK Joshi said.
Besides the killing of militants, the network of Over Ground Workers (OGWs) has also been targeted and nearly 140 OGWs were arrested,
“The militant outfits have been rendered leaderless. There have been lot of surrenders. Even parents are pressing their children who have joined militancy to surrender,” the Army Commander said, adding that as part of a strategy the Army has been targeting terrorist leadership.
“Now, the resident terrorists in the Valley are unable to engineer a planned act of violence in the manner they would like to do,” he said.
He said the local recruitment to militant groups in the Kashmir valley has significantly gone down.
“We have been working continuously to engage the youth from being misguided by the next and the deep state of Pakistan,” he added.
The Northern Command chief said the people of Jammu and Kashmir are now realizing that the Government and security forces are committed to peace and development.
“The sentiment of violence is now changing to sentiment of peace and development,” he asserted.
Lt Gen Joshi said the new terror outfits that have come up in Kashmir are definitely (Pakistan) proxies and Pakistan has been trying to say these are terrorists mushrooming in Jammu and Kashmir.
Replying to a question on disengagement in Eastern Ladakh, the Northern Command chief advised caution on China saying “India can trust, but must verify”.
He said there has been total stability in the Eastern Ladakh.
“Disengagement has been complete in some areas. Our stand is that disengagement has to take place in all areas in the Eastern Ladakh,” he added.
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