Srinagar: General officer Commanding of Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lieutenant General BS Raju on Tuesday said that armed forces don’t want to kill militants, the opportunity to surrender is given to every militant.
In a short video uploaded on the official handle of Chinar Corps (15 Corps), Lt General Raju said that ‘any loss of life is sad’.
“Six-year-old boy who was killed in Bijbehara (Anantnag) and the recent incident a Sopore where a 65-year-old man was killed, were unfortunate. The picture (showing grandchild of the slain man on the chest of his dead grandfather) elicited emotions,” the army officer said.
He said that the army has had a string of successful anti-militancy operations in Kashmir and militants often engage armed forces in populated areas and that’s what happened in Bijbehara and Sopore. He said both the places are busy places. “In both the incidents, we had CRPF casualties and multiple injuries to CRPF men also,” the GoC said.
He said that in Sopore militants had used a mosque which is a new phenomenon.
“From the mosque, we recovered 60 rounds of empty cases. The initial rounds were used to target CRPF men and the rest of the 50 were obviously fired with an aim to escape that led to occur the civilian causality,” the army officer said.
“These incidents are exploited by the environment and they provide a solid tool for the propaganda. As I said, every loss of life is unfortunate. We don’t even want to kill militants, we give them an opportunity to surrender,” the GoC said.
(A syndicated feed from KNO)
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