J&K boys with Pak, ISIS flags won’t be spared, says Army Chief

New Delhi: Amid reports of locals actively aiding militants in the Kashmir Valley and rising casualties of men in uniform, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday issued a strong warning to those who obstruct operations, and called the waving of ISIS and Pakistan flags “acts of terrorism”. All such elements, he said, will not be spared.

“Those who obstruct our ops (operations) during encounters and are not supportive will be treated as overground workers of terrorists… We would now request the local population that people who have picked up arms, and they are the local boys, if they want to continue with the acts of terrorism displaying flags of ISIS and Pakistan, then we will treat them as anti-national elements and go helter-skelter for them,” General Rawat said during a wreath-laying ceremony for four Army men, including a Major, who were killed in two separate encounters in Kashmir on Tuesday.

The Army chief admitted that there has been a higher toll in the security forces in J&K because the local population prevents them from conducting operations and “at times even supports the terrorists to escape”.

The modus operandi is that local youth resort to stone-throwing to distract the security forces engaged in the operations in a bid to help the militants escape. Army spokesperson in Srinagar Col. Rajesh Kalia told this newspaper: “We exercise maximum restraint to avoid collateral damage. During an encounter, we request the locals through loudspeakers not to wander to the encounter site.”

The number of active militants in the Valley is believed to have increased during the widespread disturbances and shutdown in the Kashmir Valley in the aftermath of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani’s death on July 9.

A security source told this newspaper: “These attacks are all happening in the Valley away from the LoC which is largely snow-bound now. So these attacks are by terrorists who are already in the Valley. From January 1, of the at least 15 militants killed in the Valley, 10 have been found to be locals”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid wreaths on the bodies of the soldiers at the Palam Airport where the mortal remains were brought on Wednesday. General Rawat briefed the PM on the incidents in which the casualties took place.

Major Satish Dahiya and three other soldiers were killed on Tuesday in two encounters in Kashmir. While the three army men were killed in an encounter in Hajin in Bandipora after security forces cordoned off the area following information about the presence of militants there, another army team killed three terrorists before Major Dahiya was shot in the abdomen in an encounter in Kralgund in north Kashmir’s Kupwara.

Alluding to videos circulating in social media showing some Army vehicles being stone pelted as they make their way out from some village, security sources said: “The videos are of old vintage and has no connection with any recent operations or of the past few months in the Valley. It is a clears cut attempt by Pakistanis and separatists to espouse such reaction.”