Priority of the armed forces is always to neutralise terrorist leadership, CDS Bipin Rawat said

New Delhi: Asserting that the first priority of security forces lie in eliminating terrorist leaders like Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Thursday said such operations will bring down recruitments for terror groups in the Kashmir valley.

Riyaz Naikoo was eliminated by security forces in Kashmir's Beighpora area of Awantipora on Wednesday.

Commenting upon efforts to humanise Riyaz Naikoo and other terrorists by describing them as Mathematics teacher and son of a tailor are somehow propagating them into developing a Rambo kind of image, "Creating more than a life-size image of a terrorist is somehow propagating them into developing Rambo kind of image. More we stay away from them and highlight their negativity, more we will not create their ramboistic image," CDS Rawat told ANI.

CDS Rawat said, "They (the terrorists) are nobody. They are people who are spreading terrorism, creating mayhem and not allowing normalcy to return. We should not give them much weightage. They are not heroes in the minds of the local population. People are only coerced to treat them as heroes," he said.

CDS Rawat asserted that the priority of the Armed forces is always to neutralise terrorist leadership as it will result in bringing down their recruitment levels.

"It is the leadership which spreads violence and coerces local population, young boys and girls, through misinformation and then tries them to encourage population. If we will be able to eliminate leadership, we hope recruitment levels go down and there will be lesser violence in the Valley," he said.

Speaking on the Armed Forces' role in the evacuation of stranded Indians abroad, CDS Rawat said, "The Civil Aviation Minister has already given out a plan and how the evacuation will be carried out by aircraft. The Navy has also chipped because we have ships which can go to neighbouring countries, particularly on the Indian Ocean rim region and we can evacuate some of the people from there."

"One of the ships has already sailed for the Maldives, there will be more ships sailing to help countries in the rim of the Indian Ocean region in whatever way we can support. This has been the government's policy that in spite of the crisis we are facing in our country, we should support nations who are lesser capable than us. We will continue to do so," he said.

The Chief of Defence Staff said that Armed Forces must come to the support of the government under such difficult times.

Responding to criticism of Armed Forces' gesture of thanking corona warriors, CDS Rawat said that it was important to motivate our frontline corona warriors who were are working for the safety and security of people.

"Every person has a right to his comment and speech. Armed Forces are known to motivate the soldiers. Motivation is one aspect which forms an essential part of our training. If we have this capability and potential at that time we did think it was important to motivate our frontline corona warriors who were are working for the safety and security of people,"

"While there are some people who are uneducated, but they do possess wisdom and intelligence. There are others who are educated but behave as if they lack wisdom and intellect," he said.

Rawat said that Armed Forces are strictly following all precautionary measures against coronavirus including social distancing, masks and use of sanitisers.

He said that if any personnel are found to be infected with COVID-19 he is being quickly isolated to contain the spread of the virus.

"We are following the guidelines very strictly- social distancing, wearing masks and use of sanitisers. Our effort is to ensure that anybody infected with coronavirus gets immediately isolated and if need to be in quarantine. So, they don't come in contact with other people," he said when asked about the increasing number of coronavirus cases in Armed Forces personnel.

"We do a quick analysis of his contacts and nearly everybody has downloaded Arogya Setu. If we are able to identify the contact of an infected person, we will be able to contain the virus and that effort will continue," he said.