Don’t worry about Taliban spillover into J&K: Army

General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Srinagar-based Chinar Corps (15 Corps) Lieutenant General

D P Pandey along with senior Army officials poses for a group photograph with the students of ‘Batch of Kashmir Super-30 (Medical)’, who were educated by Army and are now successfully undergoing the MBBS course after clearing NEET, during a felicitation ceremony at Haft Chinar Army Headquarters in Srinagar on Monday. (PTI)

SRINAGAR :

THERE is no need to worry about the possibility of a spillover of Taliban militants into Jammu and Kashmir as people will be kept safe, a top Army official here said on Monday. “This question has been asked to me a number of times on events which are unrelated. Right? So, I will again answer your question: why are you worried? You are safe and you will be kept safe. There is enough effort,” General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps or Chinar Corps, Lieutenant General D P Pandey, told reporters here.

The GoC said, if anyone picks up arms, they will face consequences and will either be neutralised or apprehended, or will have to surrender. “I am not looking at questions on Taliban or foreign terrorists or local terrorists. For us, it has got nothing to do with the quality and quantity. If there is a gentleman who picks up a weapon, he will be neutralised either way -- by getting killed or by getting apprehended and if he comes and offers (to) surrender, we will take surrender,” he said. Asked about the number of foreign militants present in the Kashmir Valley, Lieutenant General Pandey said, according to the police, 60-70 foreign terrorists who are basically Pakistanis are likely present in the Kashmir Valley. “Their strategy is to not carry out any terrorist attack, but motivate the local youth to action and give them arms so that they are killed in encounters.

It benefits them in a way that when a young boy from our country, our Kashmir, is killed, his family becomes angry with us. This is their strategy and they do not carry out operations and work from behind,” he added. The GoC, however, said there is a change in the mindset of the people in Kashmir as they have “realised that they have been taken up the wrong path by the people within their own community”.