A day after J&K police called in the wife and son of a militant to persuade him to surrender during an encounter, the state's police chief today said such humane gestures should not be misconstrued as "weakness" and that terrorists will be dealt with an "iron hand".
S P Vaid, who had recently warned the militants against targeting the families of policemen, said police personnel had "stood between the bullets and the family" of the militant, who was eventually killed.
"Such a humane approach should not be misconstrued as our weakness. I will ensure welfare of every personnel in my force and such incidents will be dealt with an iron hand.
"Yesterday, my boys called the wife of a terrorist along with his son during an encounter. They stood in front of her as she made appeals to her husband for surrender. We wanted to ensure that nothing happened to the woman or her child and it were my boys who stood between them and the bullets," he told PTI.
The Director General of Police said terrorists were feeling the heat for the last two months as they were being "tracked and trapped".
He said militants were being given the option to surrender and those who fell in line were taken to jail, but those who did not faced consequences.
Referring to the March 4 incident in Shopian where militants had barged into the house of a police officer and threatened his family with serious consequences if he did not quit his job, Vaid again warned the extremists of retribution if the kin of men in uniform were dragged into conflict.
"That was the most unfortunate incident to have happened. Maybe the terrorists are feeling the heat and simply following orders from across the border.
"But little do they realise that they too have families in the Valley. We have always adopted a humane approach towards their families and my officers have gone and met some of them to request their kins to surrender," he said.
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