J&K top cop backs CDS, says de-radicalisation camps needed

‘Pak spreading radicalisation… these centres will definitely help’

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 20

Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbag Singh on Monday backed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat’s idea of de-radicalisation centres in Kashmir while saying that Pakistan was trying to “spread radicalisation”.

“It would be a good sign, good development if such a facility comes up in Kashmir,” the DGP told a press conference in Srinagar.

The DGP was responding to a question when asked whether he supported General Rawat’s idea of starting a programme for counter-radicalisation of youth in the union territory.

He said Pakistan was trying to “spread radicalisation” in this part of the country.

“Some of our youths have got affected. This (de-radicalisation centres) should happen. It will definitely help people,” the DGP said.

He said security agencies in Kashmir had observed that detained Kashmiri youth did not seem to “be talking much sense” during their interaction with officials.

“So if any kind of arrangement by having good people from the civil society and experts, besides religious people, is made in this subject, it would be good,” Dilbag Singh said.

Recently, the CDS in a conference had said de-radicalisation was “necessary to isolate people who were completely radicalised”.

“These people can still be isolated from radicalisation in a gradual way, but there are people who have completely been radicalised. These people need to be taken out separately, possibly taken into some de-radicalisation camps. We have got de-radicalisation camps going on in our country,” General Rawat had said.

His statement had created a row with politicians mainly from the opposition parties terming them illegal centres.

Security agencies claim the new age militancy is mostly driven by radicalism. Since the killing of Burhan Wani in July 2016, over 500 youth, a majority of them from south Kashmir, have joined the militant ranks.