According to Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said at the Times Now summit that the people of Kashmir are now saying they will “lynch terrorists”, and he called it a “positive sign”.
“Nobody [terrorists] is being allowed to go scot-free… The same locals are now giving information about the terrorists. In fact, now what we are told is, the locals are saying we will lynch the terrorists, which is a very positive sign that is coming in,” Gen. Rawat said on the ground situation, as per the report of The Hindu.
“You go to social media. There are now statements coming out where locals are saying, if you want, we will now start lynching these terrorists because we will not allow these [terror attacks] to happen,” he said when asked the source of his claim.
As per the report, General Rawat said “what has so far been happening is people knew these terrorists and where they were operating, but it was the fear of the gun that kept them from disclosing information. But now they are coming forward with different thinking saying either we will lynch them or make such arrangements that they get lynched”.
Stating that he does not know whether this is a message for militants by the locals or whether it is being played up by the intelligence agencies, Gen. Rawat said if it was the former “then I would say it is a good card being played”.
As per the report of The Hindu, Gen. Rawat said “it is a good card as we need to put fear in the mind of the terrorist”.
Asked if that would amount to encouraging vigilantism and violating human rights, Gen. Rawat questioned, “How can killing a terrorist be a human rights violation? If there is a terrorist operating in your area, why should you not lynch him?”
