Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 17: Army today said that it will secure the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in Kashmir that has been the target of militants recently.
General Officer Commanding (GOC), 15 Corps Lt General Subrata Saha when asked about the militants targeting National Highway ahead of Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir, told reports on the sidelines of an Army function at Pahalgam that the Highway has to be secured all the time.
“Whether there is Yatra or not, the Highway has to be secured all the time. Why highway only, entire Kashmir has to be kept secure and safe. Those who will try to disturb it, they will keep trying but we will leave no stone unturned and will secure it”, said Lt General Saha.
On weapon snatching on the National Highway early this week at Sangam in district Anantnag, the GOC said: “It is our responsibility to ensure security of this place which we will continue to do.”
Lt General Saha suggested that Kashmiri youth need to be engaged so that they may not join the militancy and said that Army is doing its bit of engaging youth.
“By organizing sports tournaments we are trying to engage youth of the Valley. Besides this, there are skill development programmes. Kashmir Super-30 is there and there are also other programmes as well and you see how people participate in it”, said the GOC.
Lt General Saha said that Army’s programmes have positive impact and youth in large numbers are joining Army in Kashmir. “All this has positive impact and youth of Kashmir are coming forward to join the Army”, he said.
The GOC said that recently Army held three recruitment rallies for Territorial Army Engineering wing and response was overwhelming. “We advertised 753 posts and 22, 211 people came for the rally”, he said adding: “Prior to this in January this year we had 90 vacancies in Territorial Army and 21,000 people had come. I feel we are doing our best to engage youth”.
On militants threatening the cellular operators in Sopore area of North Kashmir, Lt General Saha said: “It is our responsibility to keep the environment secure, we will secure it.”
Earlier, speaking at the concluding ceremony of three day Sakoon Festival at Pahalgam the GOC said that the Army has taken it upon themselves to conduct such events. He said that the aim was to provide a platform to the local talent, which abounds in each village of Kashmir, to showcase their talents in front of a local and national audience.
Various competitions were held between in the Army Public School Pahlagam over the last three days. These included painting competition where internationally acclaimed artist, Sudip Roy was in action.
The GOC said that Roy’s participation will inspire a generation of artists from the region.
The renowned Hockey coach, Mir Ranjan Negi, also joined festival for a performance on a song of ‘Chak de India’, a film based loosely on Negi’s life. The famous Bollywood music director, Anand Raj Anand, also interacted with the youth.
The GOC said that Army will continue its efforts of empowerment of youth and women and also for promoting peace, prosperity, tourism in the Valley and showcasing the beauty, serenity and exquisiteness of the people of Kashmir.
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