Terror groups have no support system in Jammu: Lt Gen Singh

‘whole of nation’ approach needs to deal with radicalization’

Jammu: General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Jammu based White Knight Corps (16 Corps), Lieutenant General Manjinder Singh on Wednesday lauded the people of Jammu region for systemically wiping out terrorist’s based in the region and claimed that there is no support system for terror groups in south of Pir Panjal (Jammu area).
He also said there is a need of ‘whole a nation approach’ to deal with radicalization among youth of Jammu and Kashmir.
The General Officer said that Pakistan tried hard to push ‘brain-wash’ people of the region but 'good thing is that good thing’ that the people of the south of Pirpanchal were ‘anti-militants’.
“Pakistan always try to engineer incidents in the south of Pir panchal in Jammu region to show to the world that entire Jammu and Kashmir is disturbed and terrorism is not restricted to Kashmir only,” Lt Gen Singh said while interacting with media at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of 16 Corps.
However, we have seen no support (for terrorists) from the population from our area (Jammu region) and this is a healthy sign for us. We want to encash it,” he said.
The General officer maintained that the violence in Jammu is significantly low.
“Over last ten years or so no one from the Jammu region joined militancy. The terror group has no support system here, which gauged from the fact that for delivery of a SIM card to terrorist, they (Terror Group) sent an OGW from Shpioan, who later killed in an encounter,” Gen Singh said.
The General officer said that Poonch is a model of co-existence, communal brotherhood and development which the entire union territory needs to follow.
“Our Poonch area is a perfect example of peace and brotherhood. The people recognized the need for peace and moved ahead on the path of development,” Lt Gen said.

On Radicalization of youth
The General officer said radicalisation is a phenomenon under which the enemy country is making efforts to dislodge youth of Jammu and Kashmir from the right path and take them on the wrong path and to save them (from getting radicalised), we need a whole of nation approach.
Elaborating further Lt Gen Singh said the government's agenda is to get youngsters into the mainstream and the Army is aligned with it to ensure peace and development.
“The whole of nation approach involves participation of family, society, religious leaders, and teachers to prevent the youth from getting radicalised. The Army is helping them,” he asserted and added that the Army identifies ‘hostile’ profiles on social media and offers counselling to their owners.
“We (Army) remain active on this front on social media. In joint efforts with police, we identify hostile profiles and undertake counselling of several of them,” he said.
“Some of radicalised youths are booked as overground workers (OGWs) of terrorist organisations and dealt accordingly,” he added.
He further added that the Army organises educational, sports and cultural initiatives to provide opportunities to the youth so that they do not fall into the trap of radicalisation being initiated by the adversary through social media campaigns.

On Pakistan
The General officer said that the country launched the ‘thousand cuts’ plan to disturb peace in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s.
"They (Pakistan) wanted to bleed India through a thousand cuts but the troops of the White Knight Corps stood up against it. Today, we see peace progress and development in Jammu region. One thousand terrorists have been killed in the region since then,” he said.

On Challenges
Lt Gen Singh said initially infiltration and weapon smuggling was the challenge but now narco is also involved. Pakistan is constantly trying to push narcotics from across the border.
“The Norco involves huge money, which attracts youth towards. In recent times many OGWs were found motivated with money angle of narco but army is capable to stop it and has a surveillance grid, fencing and soldiers performing 24-hour duties so that nothing came into our territory,” he said, adding, “The second challenge is the enemy using vulnerable points on the LoC for infiltration but we have a counter-terrorism grid to ensure the terrorists are eliminated," he said.
He further said that the Army also ensured a strong CI grid to maintain peace in the hinterland.
“Apart from having a strong anti-infiltration grid and we are concentrating on securing the hinterlands for which we have a strong anti-terror grid,” he said.

On fresh infiltrations
The General Officer said that there is no infiltration from the borders under 16 Corps area. However, some of terrorist sneaked in from other sides (Kashmir) or other borders to disturb peace but troops at White Knight Corps equipped well to deal with it.
“Pakistan always try to engineer incidents in the south Jammu region to show to the world that entire Jammu and Kashmir is disturbed but due to flood situation in Pakistan, diversion of terrorist cadres to Balochistan and Sindh, FATF pressure on Pakistan and ongoing UN general assembly session, there was not much effort to carry out infiltrations.
He said the day this situation changes, the other side will again try to carry out infiltrations along LoC. “We are alive to the situation. We assure you our grid is effective. No infiltration has been allowed for the past two years and we will ensure that there is no infiltration in our area,” he said.

On Drones Threats
The General officer said drone dropping incidents mainly affected borders in plains including Punjab and part of Jammu which is under 9 corps.
“Drone dropping of weapons and narcotics is a command phenomenon in Punjab and Jammu, Kathua Samba border. There is less sighting of drones in our (White Knight Corps) areas and we suspect the ones seen here are a reconnaissance by the enemy, hence we are soon getting an anti-drone mechanism,” he said.
“We have our plans. Equipment is coming in order to foil drone threats,” he said.

On VDC and Civilian Porters
Lt Gen Singh praised the role of village defence committees and said these have been given a face-lift to enable them to become stronger to deal with such elements.
The general officers also appreciated the role of civilian porters and said that several welfare schemes were launched to ensure the welfare of porters engaged by the army.
Updated On 9/29/2022 12:49:09 PM
Updated On 9/29/2022 1:04:02 PM