‘Azaadi will never happen’: Army Chief Bipin Rawat to J&K youth

New Delhi: Concerned over peace and harmony in Kashmir and youth ‘picking up guns’, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat told Kashmiri youth that ‘Azaadi will never happen’ as one cannot ‘fight the Army’. “I want to tell Kashmiri youth that Azaadi isn’t possible. It won’t happen. Don’t get carried away unnecessarily,” Rawat told The Indian Express in an interview.

“Why are you picking up weapons? We will always fight those who seek Azaadi, those who want to secede. (Azaadi) is not going to happen, never,” the Army Chief emphasized.

He urged the youth not to get misled to choose weapons. Referring to a large number of militants killed in encounters, Rawat said that these numbers don’t matter to him. “I know this cycle will continue. There are fresh recruitments happening. I only want to stress that all this is futile, nothing is going to be achieved by them. You can’t fight the Army,” he said.

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The Army Chief General had earlier as well said that the radicalised youths in the Valley would soon realise that they cannot achieve anything with guns. The people of Jammu and Kashmir stood for peace, though there were some youths who had been radicalised, General Rawat said while speaking at the 70th Raising Day celebrations of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry.

He had called for united efforts to restore peace in the Valley while expressing hope in the state that has been witnessing militancy-related violence. “There is hope that the situation in Kashmir will improve,” he had said during the event.

(With inputs from The Indian Express and IANS)