Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said Young children being radicalised need to be identified and placed in de-radicalisation camps.
Speaking in an event he said, “Radicalisation can be countered. We saw it happening in Kashmir… Today, we see that young children are also being radicalised. They need to be identified and then we need to put them in de-radicalisation camps. The Indian army has not been using hard tactics… Pellet guns are a non-lethal practice. It is sparingly used,” he said.
He added that the “ideology of radicalisation” needs to addressed along with an end to “online radicalisation”.
“As long as there are states which sponsor terrorism, we will have to live with the menace. We need to take the bull by its horns and strike at the root cause,” he said, “If we think war on terrorism is going to end, we are wrong,” Gen Rawat said. He said the countries which are sponsoring terrorism cannot be part of global fight against terror networks.
“You cannot have partners who are partnering global war on terrorism and yet sponsoring terrorism… There has to be diplomatic isolation of those sponsoring terrorism. Any country which is sponsoring terrorism has to be taken to task,” he said.
Speaking about his new role as the chief of defence staff, India’s first, Rawat said, “I think the task is well cut out and we will be able to function within the firm framework which has been laid out for the CDS. I don’t visualise any problems. We’ve had meetings with the three (service) chiefs and a lot of decisions have already been taken in the past 15 days,” he said.
Asked whether he supports negotiations with the Taliban, he said peace talks should be initiated with everybody provided they give up the “weapon of terrorism”.
