Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat says Curbs may return to Kashmir, accuse Pakistan of proxy war

GUWAHATI: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat on Saturday accused Pakistan of carrying out a proxy war even as he said the curbs enforced in the aftermath of the scrapping of Article 370 may return to the Kashmir Valley.

He said Pakistan’s proxy war was aimed at creating a fear-psychosis as “a semblance of peace and tranquility was happening” in Jammu & Kashmir.

Speaking at the 1st Ravi Kant Singh Memorial lecture series in Guwahati, he said whenever Jammu & Kashmir was relatively peaceful, Pakistan would create a situation where innocent people would be killed to generate fear.

“We should not allow the exodus to happen at all. The adversary will always try to do something to make us fall into a trap,” Gen Rawat said, referring to the recent killings of Kashmiri Pundits, Sikhs and migrant workers in the Valley.

He said in the wake of the civilian killings, the intelligence network was being strengthened and the monitoring of people intensified there.

“People do not like the armed forces to become intrusive but we will have to get back into this fold again and carry out activities to ensure the terrorists do not carry out any activity,” Gen Rawat said.

Talking about the standoff with China, he admitted the delay in the resolution of issues but added they were getting resolved faster than in the 1980s.