India warns Kashmiri fighters to give up arms or get killed

Anyone who has picked up the gun will be killed, says Dhillon

SRINAGAR: India’s top military commander in Kashmir on Tuesday told mothers to get their Kashmiri sons to surrender or see them dead, as security forces intensified a crackdown in the disputed region after a suicide bomber killed 40 paramilitary police.

India was quick to blame Islamabad for the attack but the Pakistani government has denied any links to the blast, which has ramped up tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a televised address, denied that his country had anything to do with the bombing. He said Pakistan and was ready to talk with India on terrorism but would retaliate if attacked



“I would request all the mothers in Kashmir to please request their sons who have joined terrorism to surrender and get back to the mainstream,” Chinar Corps commander Lt Gen KS Dhillon told reporters in Srinagar.

“Otherwise anyone who has picked up the gun will be killed.”

‘SENSE OF URGENCY’

Pakistan has condemned the bombing and on Tuesday it appealed to the United Nations to intervene, in light of the deteriorating security situation.



“Attributing it to Pakistan even before investigations is absurd, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seeking UN involvement to lower tension.

“It is with a sense of urgency that I draw your attention to the deteriorating security situation in our region resulting from the threat of use of force against Pakistan by India,” he said in the letter.