J&K children nationalists but misled at times, says Rajnath

New Delhi, January 22

Children in Jammu and Kashmir are nationalists but are sometimes motivated in the wrong direction, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday. The comments come days after Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said girls and boys as young as 10 and 12 were being radicalised. 

“The kids of Jammu Kashmir are nationalists. They shouldn’t be seen in any other way,” Rajnath Singh, while on a visit to the NCC Republic Day Camp here, said. “Youngsters are youngsters. Sometimes, they are motivated in the wrong direction. That is why they must not be blamed for it. The ones wrongly motivating them should be blamed,” he said.

Amid raging protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, the he said as per Indian values, all religions were equal and that was why the country was secular. “Our saints and seers did not consider only people living within our borders as part of the family,” he explained. — PTI

Davinder case: Ultra’s kin detained

Jammu: Irfan Mushtaq, a relative of a militant arrested along with suspended DSP Davinder Singh, was detained here on Wednesday. He is being questioned by an NIA team, sources said. Meanwhile, Singh, Hizbul commander Naveed Mushtaq, alias Baba, his accomplice Asif and Irfan Mir will be produced in a court on Thursday. PTI