Pak ISI trying to instigate innocent boys in Kashmir: J-K DGP

Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir police chief S P Vaid today said that the Pakistan ISI was trying to instigate and provoke innocent young boys to come out from their houses and reach the site of exchange of fire in Kashmir Valley.

Vaid met Union Minister of State in PMO, Jitendra Singh in New Delhi yesterday and held a detailed discussion with him about the prevailing situation in Kashmir, in the aftermath of Tuesday’s violence which resulted in the death of three persons and injuries to others as well as to the security personnel.

“As per the inputs received, Pakistan ISI is trying to instigate and provoke innocent young boys to come out from their houses and reach the site of exchange of fire,” an official statement quoting the Director General of Police (DGP) said.

“There are also recorded messages indicating that as soon as an encounter begins, the Pakistan propaganda mill immediately gets into action,” the DGP said. Singh said that it is the responsibility ofboth the administration as well as the civil society to make the youth ofKashmir understand the reality.

“Time has come, for that the common youth of Kashmir should demand that if this so-called Jehad is so holy and great, then each of the separatist or Kashmir-centric leader should set an exampleby sending their own children to pelt stones and to stand in the line of fire during the counter-militancy operations,” he said.

Lauding the role of security forces including the army, paramilitary and Jammu and Kashmir police, Singh said, we have among the best forces in the world and the nation is eternally indebted to them.

Therefore, he said, none of us should say or do anything which tends to lower the morale of the forces. Describing the stone pelting as a “mercenary” exercise, Singh lambasted the “so-called Kashmiri leaders who are sponsored by Pakistan and are separatist only by convenience”.

Denouncing the remarks of a former chief minister who is contesting Lok Sabha bypoll and using separatist rhetoric, Singh took a dig saying, “If he becomes a minister tomorrow, he will overnight turn a nationalist.”