‘Every stakeholder has to be taken on board on Kashmir'

Mudassir Ahmad

Srinagar: Army on Friday ruled out of taking over control in Kashmir but said it will assist the police and para-military forces to maintain law and order in the Valley.

“No Army won't take full control in the Valley. But we are going to sanitise the roads and assist the police and CRPF in maintaining the law and order,” Northern Army commander, Lt Gen D S Hooda said in a press conference at BB Cantt Srinagar after meeting Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

He said the law and order situation will largely remain with police, but Army will assist them wherever is the need. “Even if we have to send more troops on the ground we will send. The idea is to send a signal of normalcy,” he said.

Hinting that Army would take control of national Highway and other main roads, he said “everyone is hurt with the present cycle of protests; it is a high time to put down our heads and chalk out a strategy”.

Hooda said in the prevailing cycle of unrest, everyone is involved- the separatist leaders, student leaders and security forces. “We have to talk to all the stakeholders. It is not any single party which is involved in this cycle of crisis,” he said.

However, he refused to divulge details about the long meeting with the governor and CM, but said the meeting was about how to bring normalcy in the region.

About the Khrew incident where a lecturer was allegedly beaten to death by the forces, the Army commander said that such incidents won't be tolerated and there is absolutely no sanction on such actions. “The probe has been ordered and everything will come to the fore after the proper investigation,” he said.

About the operation in which Hizb commander Burhan Wani along with two other colleagues was killed, he said the operation was not a staged encounter and didn't even end in two and a half minutes. “But we had no information about Wani's presence there,” he said.

Lt Gen Hooda had no idea about the enquiry into the Qazigund killings recently by the Army saying, “Are you talking about Chattergam killings.” However, after corrected by his junior officers, he said… “The Chinar Corps is probing it.”

He said the counter militancy operations will resume in south Kashmir.  “There has been a brief halt in the process because of the prevailing chaos in the valley. We are going to deal with the militancy the way we have been doing,” Hooda said.

Lastly, the Army commander admitted that there is an issue with the use of pellet guns and hoped that an alternative will be looked to solve the issue while dealing with the law and order problem.