If the parents, particularly mothers, do not stop their son from pelting stones, chances are he will be eliminated within a year of picking up the gun, General Officer Commanding of the Army's 15 Corps Lieutenant General KJS Dhillon said.Addressing a joint press conference with Director General of Police and other high ranked security officers, Lt Gen Dhillon said five out of six Kashmiri youngsters who join militancy have a record of being involved in pelting stones and 64 percent of them had a short life span of less a year. We have done an in-depth analysis of the data on insurgency in Kashmir. My request to Kashmiri mothers is, listen to this carefully, 83 per cent of the local (militants) were once stone-pelters. So, if your son is throwing stones on the forces today for Rs 500, then he is tomorrow's (militant)," he said.“Seven per cent (militants) die within 10 days, nine per cent in a month, 17 per cent in three months, 36 per cent in six months and 64 per cent in a year. If the parents do not stop their son from pelting stones, chances are he will be eliminated within a year of picking up the gun," the Army commander added.He said situation in the Valley was under control and very much peaceful as of now.“The infiltration from Pakistani side is being attempted regularly and we have been having regular contacts from the LoC where by an infiltration bid by Pakistan army and the terrorists is being foiled and replied to on regular basis including as the media has covered one of the incidents few days ago on 30th July when in Gurez sector, the three militants were eliminated on the Line of Control (LoC) while they trying to infiltrate,” he said, according to GNS correspondent.“On 30th of July Pakistani army resorted to unprovoked artillery firing and which was retaliated and replied in the befitting matter and thereafter was silence.
In case they attempted again, it would again be replied in the same manner. Situation of the hinterland, as you are aware the militant leadership is the man target of us of all tanzeems especially JeM, LeT, HM and Gazwatul Hind.”In the last seven months, he said army and other security forces killed most of the top leadership and “the job is in the progress.”“Leadership of the basic militant activities, IED threats and IED activities has been on the increase from the last one year. However, as we aware Pulwama was one incident, thereafter a failed IED attempt in Banihal and another one in the month of June an IED was blasted on one of the army vehicle at Arihal, Pulwama. There afterwards, again in Arihal, on 26th of July this year we initiated an IED which was planted and prepared to go. Now today morning again on one of our vehicle’s however no damage was done.”Regarding a question on the infiltration of militants and the action necessitated against them, the army commander cited security reasons not to answer it. “I am sorry but we don’t discuss these strategies in press conferences,” he said.Talking to reporter, DGP said Al Badr militant outfit is almost decimated and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has been “demolished to a large extent.”“Overall number of active militants in the Valley has come down and the number of active militants in Jammu region is also ended with the surrender of one militant, couple of days in Kishtawar,” he said, adding, “Our second target was the (militant) support network because of which the militancy rises and survives in the state. So therefore a strong action was targeted against the OGWs and a very large of OGWs were arrested, detained.” Apart from them, he said: “we have also taken care of the organizations which were resorting to unlawful activities like Jamaat-i-Islaami, JKLF and their activists and leaders were also booked under various sections of law.”He said recently a very large number of militant funding modules have been targeted by the police. “So the whole situation showed good improvement and we have seen that Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra which is there for last little over one month has seen 3 lakh forty thousand people visiting the holy cave.
For the yatra we have made extensive security arrangements right from Lakhanpur onwards on the highway on both the tracks, there unfortunately there were some nefarious designs from the site of --- they have tried to create an atmosphere of fear and they have resorted to couple of IEDs, some of which have been mentioned by Gen Dhillion.” Last evening only they had attacked of an army convoys in Shopian area, but luckily there was no loss to manpower of the convoy party, he said. “We were able to take care of that IED. After that three days back we were also getting inputs regarding certain specific inputs with regard to laid of IEDs and attacking the Yatra, so therefore last three days have been very hectic for us, we have been carrying searches as told to you which has led to the cache of explosive material, a Pakistani made mine and snipers (that have seen just now).”He said the security grid on ground was fully geared up to take care of any security threat, security challenges. “Overall scenario in Jammu region with regard to law and order and militancy is very well under control but there is a large number of ceasefire violations in Jammu region and elsewhere.”He however said that anti-infiltration grid is strong enough to take care of the infiltration bids. “There have been number of infiltration bids in both the sectors Jammu and Kashmir sector but most of them have been successfully aborted,” he said.The DGP also urged youth wielding gun to return to their families and lead a normal life.“As told by Dhillion we have always welcomed the youth to our fold, we do not want any kind of harm should come to them so therefore we have been encouraging them to come by even if the case that they have left their houses and joined the militant ranks. Our appeals and the appeals of the parents yet make a lot of difference. We have been able to get many of them get back to home, and we are happy that they are again part of their family and leading a happy life,” he said, adding, “We would also like that the other militants who have joined recently, we would appeal to them also to come back and join their families, we will as sympathetic to them as we have been to the others who have comeback and got united with their families.” (GNS)