General Bipin Rawat Warns Stone Pelters, Says They Are Behaving Like OGWs of Terrorists, Army Will Take Strict Action Against Them

Meanwhile, General Rawat also lambasted Pakistan and stated that Kashmir belongs to India, and the neighbour's attempts to make it a part of its country is futile.

New Delhi: Army chief General Bipin Rawat issued a stern warning to stone pelters and said that strict action will taken against the youth who practice such activities. “How can they (stone pelters) target our jawan. Please tell me why these stone pelters shouldn’t be compared with OGW of terrorists. Every time a case gets registered against the army. But this time we have registered a case against them and strict action must be taken by army this time,” Rawat asserted, while speaking at the 72nd Infantry Day celebrations at the India Gate in the national capital.

He added,”Jawan who lost his life after being attacked by stone pelters was guarding a border roads team which was constructing roads, and then we have some people saying don’t treat stone pelters like OGWs(over ground workers) of terrorists,” Rawat said.

Jawan who lost his life after being attacked by stone pelters was guarding a border roads team which was constructing roads, and then we have some ppl saying don't treat stone pelters like OGWs(over ground workers) of terrorists: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat pic.twitter.com/uQt2nYhZAw

— ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2018

General Rawat also lambasted Pakistan and stated that Kashmir belongs to India, and the neighbour’s attempts to make it a part of its country is futile. “Pakistan is fully aware they can never succeed, terror is another way by them to keep the pot boiling. They want to stall development in Kashmir but Indian state is strong enough to counter everything, and we are fully capable of carrying out different ops,” Rawat said.

Rawat’s statement comes a day after an Army jawan, who sustained head injuries during stone-pelting by a group of protesters in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag on Thursday, died at a hospital in Srinagar.

“Sepoy Rajendra Singh was part of a quick reaction team which was providing security to a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) convoy on Thursday. At around 1800 hrs, when the convoy was passing through the Anantnag bypass tri-junction near NH-44, few youths hurled stones at the vehicle and Singh was injured after being hit by a stone directly on the head,” an Army official had said.

Besides Singh, two other soldiers were also killed in Sopore and Tral in two separate incidents in the past two days.

Earlier in the day,  a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Assistant sub-inspector Rajesh Kumar was martyred after terrorists lobbed a grenade at him. The cop was deployed for security of a power grid at Wagoora Nowgam in Srinagar when the incident took place.