Jaitley rules out Governor’s rule in JK

‘Forces have an upper hand after a long time’

RK Monitoring Desk

Srinagar, June 25:

 Union Defense Minister, Arun Jaitley has ruled out Governor’s rule in Jammu Kashmir.
“Governor’s rule cannot be implemented in the Jammu Kashmir based on media coverage about the ground situation in the Valley and also because it will send out a negative impression to the world community that the State is not being governed by democratically-elected representatives,” Jaitley said in an interview to Republic TV.
He said bureaucracy cannot continuously govern the State as after some months the opposite narrative and demand for elected representatives would be made.
Jaitley said the situation in Jammu Kashmir should not be judged only on the strength of sporadic incidents as for the past one-and-a-half months there has been a huge improvement in the situation.
He said troops and paramilitary forces were monitoring militants whether local or foreigners operating within the state.
Appreciating paramilitary forces and troops especially Border Security Forces (BSF) and Army posted along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB), Jaitley said BSF has complete dominance and they almost every day check infiltration and stop militants, and liquidate many of them.
Referring to the most-hit areas of Kashmir, Jaitley said there was trouble in two or three districts in south Kashmir while in other parts sporadic incidents may be taking place but the kind of causalities being inflicted upon militants was huge.
Jaitley said the separatists were being funded from across the border for personal and political purposes and they had lost credibility.
“The evidence of this is that not only comparing it with 2012 but with 2016 and early 2017, the number of stone throwers particularly when militants struck has dwindled and so for first time, the forces after a long time have fairly an upper hand,” he said.
Talking about the present situation of Kashmir, Jaitley said nobody could ever claim the situation had become normal as Jammu Kashmir was a state which is impacted by both militancy and separatism and its militancy is partly encouraged across the border and partly bond with them.
“Therefore we are fighting a grave situation and there are chances from time to time where militants will strike back and unhappily we have to witness such incidents in reality,” he said.
Jaitley said taking the overall picture from the frame, if militants have carried three or four recent attacks, the kind of injury and the loss which is being inflicted by the local police, CRPF or Army on the militants has resulted in most of them being on the run.
Condemning frequent attacks on paramilitary forces, troops and local police, Jaitley said the reality was those incidents were very serious, condemnable and very unfortunate and they were taking place because Kashmir had been impacted by the militancy instigated from across the border.
However, Jaitley said radicalisation certainly had taken place in Kashmir and over the last 10-15 years, Kashmir which was known for its Sufism and traditions and culture, was witnessing the movement of Wahabism.

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/jaitley-rules-out-governors-rule-in-jk