Jammu and Kashmir’s Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh such camps would help “those who have gone astray”

Jammu and Kashmir’s Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh has backed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat’s idea of starting a program for counter-radicalisation of youth in the union territory.

Asked if there is a need for de-radicalisation centres in Kashmir, Singh said such camps would help “those who have gone astray.”

“If any such facility comes up in Kashmir that will be a good sign, it should happen. It’ll definitely help people, especially those who have gone astray,” Singh said according to ANI.

“If some sensible kind of arrangement is made where good people from the civil society and experts who deal with the subject and relevant aspects of religion and other things... I think that will be a good development. That kind of things should be welcomed,” the police chief said.

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At the Raisinha Dialogue last week, General Rawat had said that young boys and girls are being radicalised in Kashmir but they could still be isolated from radicalisation in a gradual manner and that sources of radicalisation need to be found out and treated.

While the government has not commented on General Rawat’s remark, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, CPI (M) leader in Kashmir asked the Centre on Saturday to come clear on the de-radicalisation camps operating in India and alleged that they were “illegal and unconstitutional”.

On Saturday, the Centre launched an outreach programme in Jammu and Kashmir, deputing 36 Union ministers to visit various places to spread awareness about central schemes after the government scrapped Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and it bifurcated into two union territories on August 5, 2019. The outreach programme will last till January 23.