Stay away from Badami Bagh cantonment, appeals Army

Tribune News Service
Srinagar, December 16

The Army on Sunday asked people to stay away from the separatists’ proposed march to the 15 Corps headquarters on Monday.

The joint resistance leadership comprising separatists Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik on Saturday called for a three-day strike against the Pulwama killings and also urged people to march towards the Army’s 15 Corps headquarters in the Badami Bagh cantonment on December 17.

The civil authorities have already decided to impose restrictions in parts of the city to foil any attempt to march towards the cantonment. The Army, meanwhile, has advised people not to “fall prey to the designs of anti-national forces” and termed the proposed march “an attempt to instigate people”.

“The loss of any civilian life is always painful for the security forces. However, the vested interests are continuously at work to instigate and mobilise gullible youths to encounter sites,” an Army spokesman said in Srinagar. “The call given by the JRL for a march to the Badami Bagh cantonment is another such attempt. The Army strongly condemns this call by Pakistani proxies and advises people not to fall prey to such designs of anti-national forces.”

He said the Army would foil any attempt to pit the civilian population against the forces. “The Indian Army is always with the people of Kashmir and would foil all such evil attempts of terrorist-separatist-Pakistan nexus to pit the civilian population against the security forces,” he said.

The spokesman said the Army along with all security agencies and the civil administration is “fighting terrorism and proxy war, sponsored by Pakistan and its proxies in Kashmir, to bring peace and normalcy”.

“As the Government of India is only interested in our territory and forcibly holds on to it while systematically eliminating the people, it is better that they finish us off at once and that is why the leadership has asked the GoI to do that as we march towards their Army headquarters in Badami Bagh on Monday. Or else, stop the killings and massacres and resolve the dispute and save human lives,” the separatists’ statement read on Saturday.