Anyone who picks up the gun will be eliminated: Army

The army on Tuesday declared that leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit was eliminated within than 100 hours after the February 14 suicide bomb attack on CRPF convoy in southern Pulwama and warned local militants to “surrender or be ready for getting killed.”

“I am happy to inform the country that in less than 100-hours we eliminated the JeM leadership in the Valley which was being handled by JeM from Pakistan. Two Pakistani terrorists and one local conduit were killed in the operation,” Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, Srinagar-based Chinar Corps Commander, said during a joint press briefing by the army, the CRPF and the Jammu and Kashmir police.

He said the CRPF convoy attack was carried out by the Jaish which is being controlled from Pakistan with an active support of ISI and the Pakistan Army. “Top JeM commanders, most of them Pakistanis, were in-charge of controlling, coordinating, fabricating and execution of this operation,” Gen Dhillon said

The remarks came after three Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were killed in an operation in Pulwama on Monday.

Stating that the car bomb-type terror strike happened after a long time in Kashmir, he said the security forces will keep all options open to deal with these kinds of attacks.

To a question on security forces' future course of action in the wake of the convoy attack and the killing of four Army personnel, including a Major, in an encounter with terrorists on Monday, Dhillon said, "The investigation (into the CRPF vehicle attack) is at a very advance stage. We cannot share probe details right now. We have leads on the type of explosives used but I cannot share.”

He also appealed to the mothers of Kashmiri militants to persuade their sons to surrender and join mainstream. “Through you (media), I would request all the mothers of Kashmir to please request their sons, who have joined terrorism to surrender and get back to the mainstream. Anyone who has picked up the gun in Kashmir will be eliminated unless he surrenders,” the army commander said.

He said the government’s surrender policy will help the young militants return to mainstream. “This is a message and a request to all the mothers: Please tell your children to surrender as there is a very good surrender policy initiated by the government so that they can join the mainstream. Otherwise they will be killed and eliminated,” he warned.

Inspector General Police (IGP), Kashmir Swyam Prakash Pani, who was also present during the press briefing said that many families in Kashmir were playing a major role in stopping their children from getting recruited by terror groups.

“There is a significant dip in recruitment...The families are playing a huge role in this. We would like to urge the families and the community to help in curtailing recruitment,” he said.