Kashmir police chief seeks 'deradicalization camps'

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

Police chief in Indian-administered Kashmir has endorsed the view to set up deradicalization camps for youth in the region.

The idea was mooted last week by India's first Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat who claimed that children as young as 10-12 were being radicalized in Kashmir.

Asked by a reporter whether he supported Rawat’s idea Director General of Police in Kashmir Dilbagh Singh said that it would be a “good sign, good development” if such a facility comes up in Kashmir.

“Pakistan was trying to spread radicalization in this part. Some of our youths, especially young minds have got affected. This should happen. It will help people,” Singh told a news conference in Kashmir's capital Srinagar.

He said that security agencies have noticed that detained Kashmiri youth did not seem to “be talking much sense” during their conversations with officials.

“So, if any kind of arrangement having good people from the civil society and experts in this subject besides religious people is made, it would be good,” he added.

Indian politicians and security officials have been consistently attributing resurgence in militancy and widespread pro-freedom protests to “radicalization” of Kashmiri youth, a theory separatist leaders and rights activists have dismissed as flawed.

India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan that have fought two wars over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.