Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 19 : General officer commanding (GoC) 15 Corps Lieutenant General B S Raju Friday hinted at making Kashmir a militancy free region in next few months.
Addressing a joint press conference at the army’s Srinagar based 15 Corps headquarters, General officer commanding (GoC) 15 Corps Lieutenant General B S Raju said that over the past 24 hours, security forces on ground did a wonderful job by killing eight militants in two separate encounters in South Kashmir’s Pulwama and Shopian districts. “In one of the encounters, where militants had gone inside a mosque, the forces on ground exercised extreme restraint and no damage was caused to the religious place”.
“With every operation we are moving on the path of peace. I can feel it on ground that there is a palpable difference in the situation,” he said.
TheGoC said that the successful operations are taking place with the activesupport of people. “In next few months, we will try to ensure that the normalcy is restored in full across the Valley so that people resume all kinds of activities in a peaceful manner,” the army officer said.
He said that this year so far 102 militants have been killed in various operations.
“There have been only one or two civilian casualties and that’s because of theextra-ordinary restraint exercised by the forces on ground,” he said.
“This year49 youth had joined various militant ranks of which 27 were killed. It doesn’t give us the pleasure to kill young boys. But if anybody picks up arms we will do what we are doing.”
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