PUNE: Chief of the Army staff Roy Chowdhary on June 3 expressed the confidence that violence in the Kashmir Valley would recede once an elected government was installed ‘there, but warned against Pakistan’s: ‘designs to thwart the democratic process in the insurgency hit border state.
When asked to elaborate on his recent statement that a “warlike situation” prevailed in the Valley, he said it had been “historically proved that whenever we had undertaken a democratic process, violence had come down,” and cited the examples of Strife torn states like Nagaland and Mizoram.
Gen Roy Chowdhary rejected a suggestion that the Army was embarrassed by the escape of some fore mercenaries holed up in the Charar-e-Sharief shrine.
The shrine and town could not be treated as”‘separatcentities, the Army chief pointed out and added “Had we tried to prevent everybody from leaving the place, civilian casualties would have been very high.
The Army allowed Mast Gul and ‘other militants to escape from Charar-e-Sharief to protect civilians from cross firing, Gen Roychouwdhury said.
Gen Chowdhary said sometimes these actions on the part of the Army, resulted in harassment to civilians, but added “We (the Army) too have suffered casualties during such operations.”
“In a low intensity warlike situation, like the one being witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir, such things are inevitable,” the Army chief said.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 9, 1995
