Echoing the statement of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps Lt. Gen Satish Dua on Thursday urged youth of the Kashmir Valley to 'give peace a chance'.
"In order to decelerate the situation, both the state government and Army should first try to control the cycle of violence. For controlling the cycle, I would like to appeal to the youth that till when they will keep doing the things that they are doing and what will be the outcome of that. As the CM said in her Independence Day speech 'give peace a chance', now the time has come when together we should try to bring peace in Kashmir," said Lt. Gen Dua.
When asked if instructions have been given to the Army for avoiding confrontation with the people, he said, "We do not get involved in law and order situation at all, whenever we go for patrolling we take law and order component along with us be it police, CRPF or both."
"At several places, I have so many of my men admitted in hospital because we have people who have fractured their arms..., there are so many injuries to the army personal also, because we keep taking the hit of the stone pallets and have nothing to respond. We do not have any non-lethal weapons to respond. And the instructions are very clear, we do take the hit but we will not fire our riffles," Lt. Gen Dua told ANI.
Mehbooba in her Independence Day speech said, "Encounters have taken place in the past and will continue to take place. But I don't understand what my government's fault was? I promise that action will be taken against the police and security forces, who went against my directions."
Remembering the efforts made my former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mehbooba said, "We hope that the efforts put in during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime would be completed now under Prime Minister Narendra Modi."
Urging the people to denounce violence in the Valley, Mehbooba said, "If we can't find our solution in the world's biggest democracy, we won't find it anywhere else."
Noting that terrorism rules the roost in the India-Pakistan bilateral talks, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar yesterday said problem is that the terrorism issue has become so central that it makes the relationship difficult to grow.
Jaishankar's statements assume significance as he had earlier expressed willingness to hold discussions over cross-border terrorism with his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.
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