SRINAGAR: The Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat has said restrictions imposed following the scrapping of Article 370 may return to the Kashmir Valley at the cost of freedom of movement because of strikes, reported The Hindu.
He also accused Pakistan of carrying out a proxy war to “create fear-mongering” because “a semblance of peace and tranquillity was happening” in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Whenever there is peace and tranquillity in Jammu and Kashmir, our western adversary creates a situation where people of some community are killed and fear is generated,” The Hindu quoted Gen Rawat as having said after participating in the first Ravi Kant Singh Memorial lecture series in Guwahati, organised by the Assam police on Saturday evening.
Referring to the killings in the Kashmir Valley, Gen. Rawat said, “We should not allow the exodus to happen from the Valley at all. The adversary will always try to do something to make us fall into a trap.”
He said Home Minister Amit Shah visited Kashmir to give confidence to the people that the security forces and the local administration will bring the situation under control.
“The intelligence network is being strengthened and more monitoring of the people is happening there. People don’t like the armed forces to become intrusive, but we will have to get back into this fold again and carry out activities to ensure the militants do not carry out any activity,” the report quoted Gen. Rawat as having said.
He said the armed forces were trying to gradually allow freedom of movement in Kashmir Valley when peace was emerging. Getting back into the restrictive fold “disrupts the freedom of the people living there, but we have to make sure all this is done for your safety and security”.
He added after the Taliban takeover of the war-torn land of Afghanistan, it becomes especially important for India to keep an eye out on Kashmir’s borders. “What is happening in Afghanistan, we know its overflow can happen in Jammu and Kashmir,” CDS Gen Rawat was quoted as saying. “We have to prepare for it, seal our borders, monitoring has become very important. We have to keep an eye on who’s coming from outside, checking should be done.”
