Army asks people not to pay heed to separatists call of protest march

The Army Sunday urged people not to march towards the headquarters of its Chinar Corps here on the call of separatists to protest the killing of seven civilians in an encounter in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The separatists, under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) which consists Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, had Saturday asked the people to march to the headquarters of the Army's Chinar Corps at Badami Bagh on Monday.

The call for the march came after seven civilians were killed and several others injured when security forces opened fire at an unruly mob that thronged the site of an encounter in south Kashmir's Pulwama district in which three terrorists and an army man were killed on Saturday.

In a statement on Sunday, an Army spokesman asked the people not to pay heed to the "misleading call" by the JRL.

"The 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. The public is once again advised not to pay heed to this misleading call by JRL," it said.

The spokesman said the Army along with the security agencies and civil administration was "fighting terrorism and proxy-war sponsored by Pakistan and its proxies in Kashmir".

"The objective of the security forces is to bring peace and normalcy in the Valley with the support of the 'awaam' (people). The forces have eliminated a large number of terrorists trying to infiltrate along the Line of Control and neutralised an even larger number of them in the hinterland this year to improve the overall security situation, making huge sacrifices themselves.

"These terrorists were involved in many cases of gruesome killings of innocent Kashmiris, including civilians, SPOs, police personnel and other security forces personnel on leave," the statement said.

The spokesman said security forces make every attempt to avoid any loss of civilian lives in cross-fire and minimise collateral damage to property.

"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.

"The call given by JRL for march to Badami Bagh Cantonment is another such attempt. Indian Army strongly condemns this call by Pakistani proxies and advises people not to fall prey to such designs of anti-national forces," the statement added.