General Officer Commanding of Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lieutenant General BS Raju Tuesday said loss of any life was sad and armed forces were giving chance to militants to surrender.
The senior army commander, in a short video uploaded on official handle of Chinar Corps (15 Corps), said six-year-old boy who was killed in Bijbehara (Anantnag) and the recent incident at Sopore where a 65-year-old man was killed, were unfortunate.
The picture (showing grandchild of the slain man on the chest of his dead grandfather) elicited emotions,” he said.
Regarding anti- militancy operations, he said the army has had a string of successful anti-militancy operations in Kashmir. He accused militants of using Masjids in Sopore and termed it as a “new phenomenon.” “From the mosque, we recovered 60 rounds of empty cases. The initial rounds were used to target CRPF men and the rest of the 50 were obviously fired with an aim to escape,” he said. “As I said, every loss of life is unfortunate. We don’t even want to kill militants, we give them an opportunity to surrender,” he said.