Srinagar, Feb 19: The General officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based army’s 15 corps today reached out to Kashmiri mothers by urging them to persuade their sons who have joined militancy, to make a fervent appeal to them to return and live a normal life. He said if the youth ignore their mother’s appeal, “the army will show no mercy on them and eliminate them wherever they are caught.”

While addressing a press conference at Badami Bagh Cantonment here, the GoC KJS Dhillon said that over the past few months recruitment in Kashmir have come down while infiltration has been taking place from Jammu region as snowfall has closed passes on LoC in Kashmir.

“Whosoever will pick up guns, will be eliminated,” GoC Dhillion said as he was flanked by IGP Kashmir SP Pani and IG CRPF Zulfikar Hassan. The GoC said that in a Kashmiri society, mother’s have a big role and “I urge them to persuade their sons who have picked up guns to come back and join the mainstream and live a normal life. Mother’s love is the best tool to bring back misguided youth. Otherwise, our reply to those wielding gun is that we will kill them and there will be no mercy for them.
GoC Dhillon said that of late infiltration in Kashmir have gone down due to the closure of passes in the wake of recent snowfall. “But infiltration is happening from Pakistan side through LoC and International border in Jammu,” he said.
On the recent convoy attack, the GoC said that they have got the leads but “It won’t be feasible to share those leads at present as the investigations were in the advanced stage.”
“But yes, the convoy attack as carried out by two Pakistani militants Kamran and Rashid Gazi along with a local conduit Hilal Ahmed,” said Dhillon. “The plan was conceived by Pakistan army with the help of ISI and it was executed by Jaish militants in Kashmir. Jaish is the baby of Pakistan army.” On Thursday last, in a deadliest attack in the Kashmirs’ militancy history, a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the CRPF convoy at Lethpora and blew the vehicle laden with the explosives resulting in the death of 40 CRPF men and injuries to dozens others.
Asked why the Pulwama encounter resulted in huge loss to army and police, the GoC Dhillon said that the officers were leading from the front with the result they received bullet injuries. “Brigadier Harbinder was on leave and he cut short his leave and joined the anti militancy operations at Pulwama in which he was injured. DIG south Kashmir Amit Kumar also was leading from the front,” he said.
Asked why the harassment of youth was taking place on the highway, General Dhillon said that only restrictions were in place for the smooth convoy movement and that there was no thrashing of people being done by the forces.

Inputs from Kashmir Indepth