Srinagar, July 24: Army on Sunday reacted sharply to the recent statement of Hurriyat Conference about alleged rape of a woman by soldiers in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district last week.     
 “Our GOC is not known to issue statements without ascertaining all details. He has even had the distance of the temporary operating base to the spot of alleged occurrence of the incident physically measured,” Army’s Srinagar based spokesman said in a statement.
  “As regards the notion that the soldiers could keep going to the spot in turns without any difficulty the Hurriyat(G) obviously has no idea of the strict procedures that the Army follows in ensuring checks on the movement of its personnel, whether officers or soldiers. Even patrols constantly monitor the strength of their personnel and there is virtually no freedom of movement. For a soldier or soldiers to remain out of their post for even more than a few hours would cause the same to be reported in the channels of reporting and control. Regarding the comment that militants cannot operate so close to an Army post it may be appropriate for the Hurriyat(G) spokesman to ascertain at what distance from the Army post were the militants  hiding in the Rajwar encounter on 23 July or in Maidanpura Lolab in the 15 July encounter.  Answers to these will confirm the veracity of the GOC's statement,” the spokeman said.
 “The GOC has requested the public not to be misled by those who are out to malign the Army because of the growing confidence of the public in the Army. The variations in the alleged circumstances and the statements of the alleged victim's relatives are themselves indicative that there is much more than meets the eye as far as the allegations against the Army are concerned. A rational and balanced mind if applied to the alleged circumstances will simply disprove everything but rationality and balance are the first victims when manipulated events are aimed at diluting the image and credibility of a disciplined organization which stands between chaos and order,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 24 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST