The director general of police Dilbag Singh Wednesday ruled out the large presence of ‘Islamic State’ group in Kashmir, even as he termed the recent desecration of Jamia Masjid pulpit by a group of masked youth as an “effort from IS elements to try and show their presence.”
Addressing a news conference at police control room here, Singh said though there are efforts to “radicalise youth through IS ideology, followers of such an ideology are very few on ground”.
“There is a very serious activity on part of anti-national and anti-social elements to radicalise a section of our youth to the extent possible,” he said.
Commenting on a video where some masked youth were seen waving IS flags atop the pulpit of Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on past Friday, the police chief termed it as an “effort on part of IS elements to show their presence”.
“Ours is a very secular kind of culture where we extend due respect to our places of worship. In the past also, we have seen some youth carrying those flags and displaying them publicly to try and show that there is a large presence of such elements (in the Valley). We would again say that their presence is not very big. But the fact that people are being radicalised on those lines can’t be denied,” he said.
Singh held Pakistani militants responsible for “less number of surrenders taking place during gunfights”.
“In most operations, we have seen that there is a Pakistani element present in that group. So even if there is someone who is innocent or somebody who has just joined militancy, somebody who could have otherwise, maybe, surrendered, those elements do not permit that kind of a thing to happen. They are so close to each other with their guns. On many occasions, we call family members to call out their wards. But despite a family being involved, there was ‘no’ (surrender). It is not that we are not making efforts,” he said.
Without sharing the exact figures, the DGP said many youth “who were at the borderline of joining militant ranks were brought back”.
“We had a number of modules of youth who were on the borderline of joining militancy. We dissuaded them, persuaded them from joining that path. We took an action which was the linear most action possible in their respect,” he said.