Monitoring activities in J-K will now be easier: Army Chief

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Thursday asserted that as Jammu and Kashmir has became a Union Territory, it will be easier to monitor activities in the region.

"In the Kashmir valley, everybody is working together, Army does not work in isolation. Army is working along with the other central police forces that are there, the state police forces. Now if you see the BDC and Sarpanch elections have been held. So, we are working with everybody together," General Rawat told media here.

"Now what will happen is the monitoring of activities I am sure will be carried out in a better manner because they have come directly under the Centre becoming a Union Territory," he added.

The Army Chief on Tuesday met a group of maulvis, granthis and pundits from Rajouri and Reasi region who have were here as part of a national integration tour.

"I was very happy to meet from the Rajouri area, religious teachers, who are maulvis, granthis and pundits. They have all gathered together and come here as part of the national integration tour. This highlights how all communities in Kashmir can live together. This is a very significant message which is being sent to the people of Kashmir that if the granthis, maulvis and pundits can operate together, obviously they understand that whatever their religious books and texts are preaching have the same basic message. The message is of peace and harmony," General Rawat said.

He said that the situation is "fully under control" in Rajouri and Reasi areas from where these religious teachers visited.

"There is hardly any militancy in these areas. People are happy and doing their jobs. But then one thing they have is that yes there is scope and potential for increasing the employment in these areas for which we have told that we will provide you help. We will see how early recruitment rally can be organised in their area so that some of the youth from these areas can join the defence services or if the police forces can organise a rally along with us, we will see if they can even join the police forces," General Rawat said.

He further stated that peace and harmony can be attained "if the religious teachers are able to communicate the true meaning of the religious texts and what is written in them."

"Therefore, I want to give credit to these people because they have spread the right message. I only hope and I wish that this message can be spread to other parts of Jammu and Kashmir also where people are getting misguided and this can stop in case the religious teachers of all communities can spread the message of peace, harmony and the fact that all communities in India can live together," he said.

General Rawat said that "Kashmir is no different from any other region of our country."

"Kashmir must also reap the benefits of what the rest of India is benefitting from. This can happen if everybody lives together in peace and harmony," he added.