No mercy for foreign militants: Lt Gen Syed Atta Hasnain

The commander of the Indian army in Kashmir said on Friday that his force did not ask foreign militants trapped during an operation to surrender, but went straight for the kill.

“We decided to eliminate LeT's (Lashkar-e-Tayaba commander) Abdullah Uni the very moment we received reports that he was hiding in a Sopore house.

He was not asked to surrender,” GOC 15th Corps, Lt Gen Syed Atta Hasnain said at a public meeting in the Trehgam area of the frontier Kupwara district.

“The army never asks any foreign militant to surrender,” he said.

The general claimed that the Lashkar-e-Tayaba had been finished as a fighting force in Kashmir with the killing of 25 of its top commanders.

“It is now calling up fresh blood from Pakistan to shore up its activity,” he said.

Gen Hasnain said that around 500 Kashmiri youth were imprisoned in various jails in Pakistan.

“Kashmiri youth no longer go to Pakistan for militant training, nor do they want to take the path of violence now,” he said.

The general said that the army was engaged in strong efforts to bridge the gulf with the common people in Kashmir and that its public meetings with the masses had shown positive results.

According to the general, the army would be holding a ten-day recruitment rally in the Behama area of Kupwara from September 26.