Police, army should respect each other: Rijiju

Days after police and Army personnel clashed in Arunachal Pradesh's Bomdila town, Minister of State for Home (MHA) Kiren Rijiju on Sunday said no one should comment on the issue with a "prejudiced mindset".

In a Facebook post, he said both the institutions should respect each other as they are serving the nation.

Describing the Army as country's pride which secures "our motherland" and police are the "pillar" of internal security, Rijiju said "we must respect both great institutions. Every individual and institution functions under a system governed by law... Let's respect and strengthen each other."

His remarks came after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rijiju visited Bomdila to take stock of the situation.

"The spontaneous decision of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman-ji to visit Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh generated a huge goodwill amongst the people. We interacted with the local people and district administration. Army is our pride who secure our motherland and police is our pillar of internal security who maintain law and order," he said.

"Our uniform people sacrifice their personal comfort and family for the nation... There are always elementary human errors which can be taken care of and the matter will be resolved. I appeal everyone not to jump into the matter with loose comments without knowing the facts with prejudice mindset," he added.

The incident of some soldiers vandalising the Bomdila police station and assaulting police personnel and civilians last week had triggered a controversy.

In a Twitter post last week, Rijiju, who belongs to Arunachal Pradesh, said that due to "indecorous acts at individual level a reprehensible incident" took place but whole institutions cannot be "dragged along".

"My constituency people are peace loving. But some outside elements are making hateful comments in social media without any factual knowledge," he had said.