Hit stone-pelters with bullets: BJP MP

BJP Rajya Sabha member D P Vats has said that stone-pelters in Kashmir Valley should be hit with bullets.

Pakistan has started a proxy war with the country and each day our forces in Jammu and Kashmir are being attacked, the former commandant of Pune's Armed Forces Medical College said yesterday.

"...I am of the opinion that stone-pelters should be hit with bullet," Vats said when asked about the Jammu and Kashmir government's decision to withdraw cases against people involved in stone-pelting incidents.

Pakistan has not learnt a lesson despite tasting defeat many times in direct wars with India and is now engaged in proxy war, the retired lieutenant general told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Bhiwani yesterday.

When PTI today asked him if he stood by his comment, Vats said, "I am an Army officer, the Army has been fighting a proxy war waged by Pakistan for a long time. What does my soldier fighting this proxy war on ground in Kashmir expect of me? As an Army officer, I stand by what I have said."