Srinagar, Jan 2: Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh, Wednesday, said that a section of youth in Kashmir was being “radicalised” towards ISIS-like ideology by some “anti-national elements.”
“The presence of ISIS is not that big in Kashmir but some youth are being radicalised towards the ideology by anti-national and anti-social elements and their ill-designs have to be defeated,” he said during a presser here.
The police chief said that although there is hardly any presence of IS in Kashmir, the “fact that people are being radicalised on those lines can’t be denied.”
Singh was referring to the last Friday incident that happened inside Jamia Masjid here, in which some masked youth raised pro-ISIS slogans, held flags and desecrated the pulpit.
Joint Hurriyat leadership and militant outfits have condemned the incident.
“Kashmir civil society has been an open society, a very secular kind of culture where we extend due respect to all the places of worship,” the DGP said.
He claimed that the civil society has convinced many youths to shun the path of militancy.
“There are some fundamentalists, who are speechless because of this. Conspiracies are being hatched and there are some proxies across the border. But people shall not let their ill-designs succeed,” Dilbag said, hoping that valley would see better days in 2019.
The DGP was flanked by the top brass of the department.
He called the civilian deaths near encounter sites as “unfortunate”.
“Sometimes youth rush to the encounter sites and attack the deployment. I again appeal youth not to waste their lives by rushing to encounter sites,” he said.
“The security forces are showing maximum restraint to save the lives of people,” he claimed.
The DGP said it was “painful” to see youth picking up arms to get killed in counter-militancy operations.
Asked why the forces did not let the 14-year-old boy of Bandipora surrender, he said: “We did not know who was inside. We come to know only once the operation is over. There are some innocent youth or who have just joined militancy but Pakistan elements do not let them surrender. At times, we even try to get families involved so that the lives of youth are saved. Police has adopted a humane approach and brought many youth back from the militancy.”
Over the frequent internet shutdowns in Kashmir, he said: “There are some anti-national elements, which blow things out of proportion on social media and it becomes a security issue. We hope there is less number of shutdowns in 2019.”
The DGP said he wants the police to be friendly and vice-versa.
“We want police stations to be more people friendly. There will be female police personnel in every police station for the convenience of women,” he said.
On putting up of checkpoints, the DGP said it was for the “safety of people”.
Additional Director General of Police (law and order), Muneer Ahmad Khan, said the investigation into the recent rifle-snatching incident from the official residence of Congress leader in Jawahar Nagar was going on.
“Everything will be investigated thoroughly,” he said.
Over the attachment of SSP Security Maqsood-ul-Zaman following the rifle snatching, he said that it was a “departmental issue”.
Police’s 2018 death count
‘252 militants, 84 personnel, 44 civilians’
Mudassir Kuloo
Srinagar, Jan 2: The police on Wednesday said that 252 militants, 84 government forces personnel and 44 civilians, were killed in encounters during 2018.
