Anyone who picks up gun in Valley will be eliminated: Army

NEW DELHI: Anyone who picks up a gun in the Kashmir Valley will be eliminated, Indian Army said on Tuesday.

Addressing the media, Corps Commander Lt Gen KJS Dhillon urged mothers of local terrorists to ask their sons to surrender or else the Army will be compelled to take action against them.

"In a Kashmiri society, mother has great role to play. Through you, I would request the mothers of Kashmir to please request their sons who've joined terrorism to surrender and get back to mainstream. Anyone who has picked up gun will be killed and eliminated, unless he surrenders," Dhillon reiterated.

The Army commander said that Pakistan's main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, was involved in last week's attack on a security convoy claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group.

"Our focus is clear on counter-terrorism operations. We are very clear that anyone who enters Kashmir Valley will not go back alive," the Lieutenant General asserted.

At least 40 CRPF men were killed in the car bombing on a Kashmir road claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) .

"We were tracking down top leadership since the attack. It was being controlled from across by ISI and Pakistan and JeM commanders," Dhillon told reporters.

The Army further said that the main people of the JeM's top leadership in the Valley have been eliminated.

"I would like to inform that in less than 100 hours of Pulwama terrorist attack, we have eliminated JeM leadership in the valley which was being handled by JeM from Pakistan," he said.

On Monday, the Army eliminated three JeM terrorists, including Abdul Rashid Gazi, the suspected mastermind of the February 14 attack, in a prolonged gun battle in Pulwama.

Dhillon said that Army will keep all its options open to deal with the car-bomb attacks executed by the terrorists in the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama.

"The type of car bomb attack that took place in Pulwama on 14th Feb, happened after a long time in Kashmir. We will keep all options open to deal with these kinds of attacks," he said.

Dhillon also told reporters that Brigadier Hardeep Singh who was nursing an injury voluntarily returned to the operation site. "Brigadier Hardeep Singh, who was on leave due to injury, he cut short his leave voluntarily and came to the operation site and stayed there and lead his men from the front," he said.

The security forces commended the families for dissuading their sons from picking up arms.

"There is a significant dip in recruitment, we have not see any recruitment in the last three months. The families are playing a huge role in this. We would like to urge the families and the community in curtailing recruitment," IGP Kashmir SP Pani said.