While emphasising that Armed Forces Special Power Act is a must for security forces in J&K, Army Commander, Northern Command, B.S. Jaswal on Thursday extended an open invitation to the stone-pelters to join the forces.
While talking to media at Northern Command, Udhampur, Lt. Gen. Jaswal, though admitted that there was explicit support of Pakistan to stone-pelters, stated, “We’ve triggered an initiative. These stone-pelters, boys, at certain places even ladies, were involved, we’ve extended that you please come, we’ll train you, we’ll make you join the forces. They are our people, we’re attached to them. If they’ve gone astray in their ideologies, it’s for us to correct them to provide them an opportunity to join the mainstream.”
“We’ve very interesting transcripts as to how exactly the next day operations were being planned in Pakistan, which group to go where, where stone pelting is to be done, who is going to be giving the stones, stone bags. Definitely, this was being supported by Pakistan….Yet I would like to send a message to the youth — the future which they are looking at, does not lie in stone-pelting. It lies in being part of the society, by abiding norms of the society. It’s for us to motivate them to come to mainstream.”
On account of rehabilitation policy for the youth, Lt. Gen. Jaswal said that there’s scope for its success. “The security safeguards are enshrined in it. How it fructifies on the ground, that’s stage two. There are pitfalls and there are constraints. Definitely, Pakistan Army and ISI certainly trained these chaps. They will try to ensure that these chaps go and do their job here. But it’s the genuineness of our surrender policy and the methodology we adopt to get them back, after all they are our youth for that matter.”