On Tuesday, Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said that one of the factors behind stone pelting was the decades of militancy in Kashmir that had shattered the education system. Rawat was interacting with students from Chattisgarh who had come on a trip to Delhi.
Upon being inquired as to why there were frequent stone-pelting incidents in Kashmir, Bipin Rawat replied, Kashmiris are being fed with misinformation that India is anti-Muslim and those who eat beef are being killed.”
“They try to shield militants. 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 madarassas, which cannot get you good jobs,” he added.
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He said that the Army had a dual approach to the situation. One was the ‘harsh way’ so they could understand their mistakes, and the other was to bring people from Delhi ‘to show we don’t have Army on every corner here as Delhi is peaceful’. He said that the army would be taken away from Kashmir if the valley would remain peaceful.
