South Western Command Chief Lt Gen. Cherish Mathson said Saturday the Army personnel dragged bodies of terrorists instead of picking them up as they could be booby-trapped. The comment came after a purported video of soldiers dragging a dead Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant by chains tethered to his legs in Jammu and Kashmir surfaced, triggering accusations of human rights violation. This followed an encounter in which three militants were killed and 12 security personnel injured in the state’s Reasi district on Thursday.
Mathson said on the sidelines of a press conference on Haifa Day celebrations that militie IEDs ( improvised explosive devices) and grenades around their bodies and there is a threat to army men if they pick up the body. It was a drill of the army to drag the body with ropes to save themselves from activated IEDs or other explosives.On the issue of force restructuring, he said armies all over the world review themselves periodically to see whether its structure was aligned with its strategy. He said review had been ordered but nothing was finalised yet.
Mathson said that on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the Haifa Day, Army chief General Bipin Rawat would visit Jaipur and take part in the inauguration of the Haifa Statue, . Haifa Day is celebrated to mark the liberation of the Haifa city during the World War I by the Allied Forces. The Indian Army commemorates September 23 every year as Haifa Day to pay its respects to the Indian soldiers who were part of the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade in that operation. He said very few Indians know and celebrate the day, but people in Israel celebrate the day every year.
]]>
