Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday asked the Kashmiri youth to shun the path of mindless violence saying this would not let them live long.

General Rawat, who was talking to the media at the Mamun military station near Pathankot on the sidelines of a function to honour the disabled soldiers, said: “We are giving you an opportunity to surrender and give up guns. If people do not behave and continue the violence, the only element left is to neutralise them.”

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He said the number of local terrorists in Kashmir at the moment was more than Pakistanis and advised the local youth it was “not worth joining militancy because you will not live long”.

The Army chief said radicalisation was happening in Kashmir because of misinformation but the action was being taken against those engaged in radicalising and funding terrorism. “We are persuading the youth to give up the gun,” he said.

Gen Rawat warned that those disrupting Army operations against terrorists will be dealt with strictly.

Local youth who have joined militancy do not even have training to handle arms and ammunition. “We are trying our best to stop infiltration and launching pads along the Line of Control (LOC) have been kept active by Pakistan. We might witness more infiltration attempts before the snowfall”.

General Rawat said the government was taking effective action against external forces trying to revive insurgency in Punjab and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was concerned on the issue and was taking direct action to prevent violence from spreading again. “People of Punjab will not allow outside elements to revive insurgency,” he said.

The Army chief also said the separatists should take the opportunity to engage in talks with the Centre’s representative, Dineshwar Sharma, who is talking to cross-sections of people in the Valley.

Replying to questions about the sniping incidents by Pakistani troops that have claimed lives of three of soldiers in the Rajouri sector, General Rawat said snipping was not new and “we too have snippets”.

Earlier, General Rawat honoured the soldiers who got disabled in the line of duty. The Indian Army is observing the year 2018 as ‘Year of the Disabled Soldier’.

The Western Command organised the ‘Samman Samaroh’ for the disabled soldiers of North India. Over 500 disabled soldiers with their families from the states of J&K, Punjab, UP, Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh participated in the function.