Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Thursday warned the youth of the India-held Kashmir to not resist the occupational forces as “freedom was not possible”, reported the Hindustan Times.
“The numbers of militants who are killed in gunbattles with the army don’t matter to me because I know this cycle will continue. I only want to stress that all this is futile, nothing is going to be achieved by them. You can’t fight the army,” said the Indian army chief in an interview.
“I know that the youth are angry. But attacking security forces, throwing stones at us isn’t the way,” he said and blamed the Kashmiris for inciting security forces.
He also said that they were inciting security forces to become more aggressive.
“Until June 2016, everything was fine. What is that incited people so much because of Burhan Wani’s encounter? Everything was turned upside down in a few days’ time. The entire south Kashmir was out in the streets, throwing stones at us, attacking our posts,” he said and added that a military solution did not exist for the Kashmir issue and a dialogue should be held with Kashmiris.
He boasted that youngsters in the occupied Kashmir, who had picked up guns were not a “big challenge” for the Indian army and said that the armed forces had deployed at least 500,000 troops in the occupied Kashmir.
