Who Will De-Radicalise Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan Killers, Owaisi Asks Bipin Rawat on Camp Comment

In a scathing attack on Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, who suggested that radicalised youth be put in disciplining camps, Lok Sabha MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has asked who will “de-radicalise lynchers and their political masters” in the country.

Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, a conclave of global affairs being hosted by India on Thursday, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, said “girls and boys as young as 10 and 12 are now being radicalised in Kashmir”, and that those who are “completely radicalised” need to be “taken out separately” and put in certain de-radicalisation camps.

“To say that radicalisation cannot be countered, I don’t agree with this. Anything that has started can be put to an end. Radicalisation can be countered. You have to start looking at where the radicalisation is happening. And who are the people who are radicalising these people. It is happening in schools, universities, religious places and sites, and there are a group of people who are spreading this,” he had said.

Hours after his statement, Owaisi hit out at the CDS and posed a question: who will “de-radicalise lynchers and their political masters?”

Addressing a public meeting in Adilabad, Telangana, Owaisi said, "Who will de-radicalise the killers of Akhlaq Khan? What about the killers of Pehlu Khan, who was lynched in the middle of a Jaipur road? Who will de-radicalise people behind lynching attacks on Muslims and Dalits? There are people who've been completely radicalised. These people need to be taken out separately, possibly taken to some de-radicalisation camps".

He accused Rawat, a military rank-holder, of “undermining civilian supremacy” by making statements on public policy and politics.

“What about those opposing citizenship for Assam’s Bengali Muslims?” he asked. “Policy is decided by civilian administration not by any General. By speaking on policy/politics, he is undermining civilian supremacy,” Owaisi, who has been vociferously protesting against the new citizenship law, said in a tweet.

Responding to a question on radicalisation of youth at the Raisina Dialogue, Rawat had said: “It is happening from schools, universities, from religious places and sites. There are a group of people who are spreading this,” he said, adding that those who are identified as radicalising others should be isolated “gradually”. Then, he said, “a counter-radicalisation programme” should be started. “First target those who are completely radicalised, then start also looking at the future,” he said.

Speaking at the event, former army chief Rawat also denied allegations of the Indian military being “heavy-handed” and said the force uses pellet guns “sparingly”.

Rawat, however, conceded that the terrorism in Kashmir had to be dealt with with a “heavy hand initially”. “But the reason for high casualties in the services is that the first bullet is being taken by soldiers.”

He added that the “ideology of radicalisation” needs to addressed along with an end to “online radicalisation”.