Army Chief Bipin Rawat calls for counter radicalisation and slyly remarks Pakistan on sponsoring terrorism

New Delhi, January 9: Trouncing a strong remark on Pakistan, Army Chief Bipin Rawat warned that ‘terrorism’ cannot be wiped out untill "nations continue to sponsor it as state policy". He stated that terrorism is terrorism is a menace which is spreading its head like a "multi-headed monster" by becoming a new form of warfare. The Indian Army chief also called for international curbs on regular and social media to counter radicalisation.

 

Speaking at Raisina Dialogue 2019, a multilateral conference on international policy matters, General Bipin Rawat said that terrorism is becoming a new form of warfare and it will continue as long as some nations sponsor it. Adding further he also backed talks with the Taliban in war-torn Afghanistan, and called for international curbs on regular and social media to counter radicalisation.

Elaborating his stance on talks with the Taliban, General Rawat said any dialogue with the Islamist terrorist organisation should involve no conditions. There should be talks with Taliban so long as they don’t come with pre-conditions and so long as they are looking at lasting peace in Afghanistan and bring about stability in that country. Adding further he said that talks with Taliban will emancipate in the framework of all the regions asserting the need of stability.

 

Further asserting the need to control social media, General Rawat said that the social media is becoming a source of spreading radicalisation. He said a different kind of radicalisation was being witnessed in India and in Jammu and Kashmir where the youth were getting radicalised due to a lot of misinformation, disinformation, and a lot of falsehoods on religion being fed to them.

The General sought to warn against the increasing radicalisation of youth in Kashmir, putting much of the blame on misinformation spread through social and conventional media. He said that, in Kashmir, the youth were getting radicalised by a “lot of misinformation, disinformation, a lot of falsehoods on religion that are being spread to them”. Radicalisation through social media is becoming one of the reasons for raising funds for terrorists organisations. "That is why you find more and more educated youth being drawn into terrorism," he said.

The Army chief said the international community should come together to ensure curbs on media and social media to check radicalisation, adding that this should not be seen as a way to suppress the press. The Army chief also credited the intelligence agencies and the beat-policing system in India for keeping the IS’ influence at bay.