Four local terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian on Monday after a four-hour operation. A day earlier, five terrorists were killed in the same area.
According to Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbag Singh, as many as 22 terrorists have been killed in the past two weeks.
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At a press conference in Awantipora in Kashmir Valley, Lt. Gen. B.S Raju of the XV Corps said that after the revocation of Article 370 in J&K last year, people of Kashmir took the decision in a “positive manner” as there was relative peace for a long time. He asked people not consume to Pakistani media as peddled only misinformation.
‘Normality was almost back’
Lt. Gen. Raju said that normality was almost back in the Valley till another lockdown had to be imposed due to coronavirus (COVID-19).
“I think the population took the decision in a positive manner, we saw relative peace for a fairly long period of time…by February things had opened up. January-February people had begun to move around, schools opened with 100% attendance…winter tourism had commenced in Gulmarg, so we were seeing all kinds of normalcy before the issue of COVID came in and we had to get in another round of lockdown,” he said.
‘Pak not happy with peace’
Pakistan was not happy with the peaceful situation in the Valley. “Pakistan is unhappy because it is in its larger plan to keep the pot boiling in the Valley. That is how the relevance of the Pakistan army remains within Pakistan. As far as Pakistan''s contribution to violence here is concerned, it is a combination of two things -- on the physical front inducting weapons along the Line of Control and, the second is, the information warfare Pakistan intends to fight”, he stated.
“I would say that 120 crore of the country’s population have a role to play in demolishing false narratives, which are coming from Pakistan. While we are fighting on ground, we will definitely look forward to the cooperation of the public and the population in general to spread the right message and demolish the false narratives”, he said.
General Officer Commanding of Army''s South Kashmir based Victor Force Major General A. Sengupta said the encounter took place in a congested area at Pinjora in Shopian.
“The terrorists were harassing the civilians and were known to cause excesses to the civil population. They were involved in abducting policemen, causing injury to truck drivers last year….in four-hour operation four local terrorists were killed, arms and war like stores were recovered from them,”he said.
