Kashmir has been on a boil from last few days and Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has given his first response to the recent developments where Governor rule has now been imposed and by confirming that the Security Forces’ operations against terrorists will continue as before.
Speaking to reporters, India’s Chief of Army Staff spoke about the Ramzan ceasefire that was ended recently and said that the terrorists hadn’t reciprocated. “Operations were going on before also. Then we issued a suspension of operations because we wanted people to observe the month of Ramzan unimpeded. Despite this, terrorists continued their activities. That’s why the suspension of operations was revoked and we will continue operations as before.”
General Rawat was also asked on whether there was any political interference in the Army’s operations as a result of the BJP-PDP tussle that has led to the former withdrawing support to the latter causing Mehbooba Mufti to resign as CM, to which he said:
“I don’t think it’ll make any difference. There’s no political interference on us. Like you may have heard before, Army has never been stopped from conducting operations as it does. We have strict rules of engagement and we conduct operations based on these.”
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Addressing a briefing after tendering her resignation on Tuesday, Mehbooba Mufti championed the ceasefire and sought to put it firmly in the eye of the political storm by saying that she and her party wanted it extended but it wasn’t. The BJP, meanwhile, has said that its former coalition partner wasn’t sufficiently behind the anti-terror operations. In fact, in her address, Mehbooba Mufti made no mention of Pakistan-sponsored terror or terrorism in general, speaking of Pakistan only in the context of holding talks and having good relations.
The ceasefire had its critics from the beginning and reached its nadir when late last week, Army Jawan Aurangzeb was abducted and killed and Rising Kashmir chief editor Shujaat Bukhari was murdered in cold blood along with two PSOs in Srinagar’s press enclave.