A 22-year old soldier Rajendra Singh succumbed to his injuries after being struck by a stone hurled at his vehicle by the stone pelters in Anantnag district of South Kashmir. The young soldier was part of a Quick Reaction Team (QRT) providing security to a Border Roads Organisation convoy.
Army spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia said, “At around 6 pm, when the convoy was passing through the Anantnag tri-junction near NH-44, few youths hurled stones at the vehicle and Singh was injured after being hit by a stone directly on his head. He was provided immediate first aid and evacuated to 92 base hospital but unfortunately succumbed to his injury.”
On the occasion of Infantry Day, General Rawat paid tributes at Amar Jawan Jyoti. Lambasting Pakistan he said that they are fully aware that they can never succeed and hence they are trying to keep the ‘pot boiling’ in Kashmir by enabling infiltration of terrorists in India. He also reassured that Indian Armed Forces are fully capable and prepared for carrying out different operations to stall enemy’s wicked machinations.
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: Army Chief Bipin Rawat pic.twitter.com/PZC28d4Nrn
— ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2018
Condoling the young man’s death at the hands of nefarious stone pelters, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat took a dig at people who ceaselessly protect stone-pelters and demand Army to not treat them like Over Ground Workers(OGWs) for the terrorists.
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
The scourge of stone pelting has intensified in Kashmir in the last few years. Earlier, General Rawat drew flak from the detractors for asking to treat the stone pelters as over ground workers for terrorists. Politicians in Kashmir had batted for them, asking the center to provide compensation to them to encourage them into leaving stone-pelting. Accused of sexual harassment by a colleague, former NSUI president Fairoz Khan had also justified stone-pelting in 2017.
