Army officer saved lives by tying man to jeep in Kashmir: Madhav

Excelsior Correspondent/PTI
New Delhi/JAMMU, Apr 20: BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav today complimented an Army officer responsible for tying a man to a jeep’s bonnet in Kashmir, saying “everything is fair in love and war” and the “harsh” decision saved lives of civilians and soldiers.
The saffron party’s pointsman for Jammu and Kashmir also said the current Kashmir situation is “certainly troubling” but expressed confidence that the PDP-BJP Government will handle it.
“The situation is difficult but such situations have been there in the Valley so many times before,” he told CNN-News18, according to a press release.
Asked about the controversial video showing the civilian tied to the Army jeep, Madhav said nobody wants this but justified the act saying if one person’s human rights are violated in order to protect the human rights of many more, he will leave that judgement to the officer concerned.
“I will compliment him for the decision that he took. He saved the lives of the people in police station, officials and all, and also his own boys. He also did not allow any civilian casualty,” he said.
Had the Army not done so, then the mob there would have lynched over 50 civilians and almost equal number of security personnels there, Madhav claimed.
The other option before the Army was to fire indiscriminately because the officer had about 10 soldiers with him, and this would have caused civilian casualties, he said.
The incident happened because reinforcements could not reach in time, he said.
Madhav also criticised the controversial statement made by a State Minister calling for “bullets against stones” and said politicians should leave these matters to security forces.
Meanwhile, Ram Madhav and Party national vice president and Prabhari J&K Avinash Rai Khanna will arrive here tomorrow morning to discuss the prevailing situation in Kashmir valley and review the party affairs in a meeting of State office bearers.
The two national leaders will also take the stock of the preparations for two days visit of Party national president Amit Shah, who is arriving here on April 29.
According to party sources, Madhav will return to Union Capital in the afternoon while Khanna will leave for Patnitop to participate in the Party office bearers preparatory meeting tomorrow evening for two days State Executive meet which is to be held at Doda on April 22 and 23.
The meeting with Madhav and Khanna besides party president Sat Sharma will be attended by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, BJP general secretary (Org) Ashok Koul, party general secretaries Dr Narinder Singh, Pawan Khajuria and Harinder Gupta.
Sources said the BJP national leaders will take feed back from Party leadership on prevailing political situation in the State and latest developments in Kashmir valley where the incidents of stone pelting have increased for last over one month. They will also discuss the progress on Agenda of Alliance (AoA) between two parties, sources added.

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