Srinagar/Jan, 2: Director General of Police (DGP), Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbagh Singh on Wednesday ruled out any large presence of Islamic State (IS) group in Kashmir, but claimed that the youth were being ‘radicalised’ through its ideology.
Addressing a press conference here DGP said “In the past also, carrying those (IS) flags and displaying them publicly to show that there is a very large presence of such elements…we would again say that presence (of IS) is not that big but the fact that people are being radicalised on those lines that can’t be denied”.
He said that some elements were making serious efforts to radicalise a section of the youth “to the extent possible”.
“Kashmir civil society has been as such been an open society, a very secular kind of culture where we extend due respect to our places of worship. Such efforts (of radicalisation) had been made at various quarters and their expression has been seen in the kind of activities we saw other day (at Jamia Masjid),” said Singh.
A group of masked young men had stormed into the historic Jamia Masjid with IS flags and created a ruckus on Friday, provoking condemnation from the mosque’s management committee as well as political leaders.
The incident occurred after the congregational prayers, when the mosque was nearly empty. The men were chased away by the devotees present. A video of the incident went viral on the social media the next day.
