Education in shatters causes stone-pelting in Kashmir: Army Chief Bipin Rawat

NEW DELHI: Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said that decades of militancy has shattered the education system in Jammu and Kashmir and this is one of the factors behind stone-pelting protests in the state.

The Army chief was interacting with students from Chhattisgarh who were on a trip to Delhi. One of them asked him why there were frequent stone-pelting incidents in the Kashmir Valley.

Gen. Rawat replied that Kashmiris were being fed with misinformation that India was anti-Muslim and those who eat beef were being killed.

"They try to shield terrorists. They pelt stones as it is easily available. (Stone-)pelting is not (something) new. Unemployment is a factor for this, but it is not unique to Kashmir. There is unemployment in other parts of the country as well. Youngsters there don't pelt stones. Education there (Kashmir) is shattered. Most of the schooling is done through madrasas, which cannot get you good jobs."

He said the Army had two ways of dealing with the situation."The harsh way or the other way is to make them understand that what they are doing is wrong. We bring some of the people from there to Delhi to show we don't have Army on every corner here as Delhi is peaceful. If Kashmir is also peaceful, the Army will be taken away from there."