Slamming the recent United Nations (UN) report on alleged human rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir, Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday termed the document as “motivated” and said the Army’s record on human rights is “absolutely above board.”

His remarks here came in the backdrop of UN Human Rights Council report released last week about rights violations by India in Kashmir and Pakistan in Occupied Kashmir (POK) and sought an independent investigation.

Taking exception to it, the External Affairs Ministry had brushed aside it some days back saying “India rejects the report. It is fallacious, tendentious and motivated. We question the intent in bringing out such a report.” The Ministry had also said the report was “overtly prejudiced” and that it sought to build a “false narrative.”

Reacting to the UN report, Rawat told media persons on the sidelines of a seminar on cyber security, “I don’t need to speak about the human rights record of the Indian Army. It is well known to all of you, it is well known to the people of Kashmir, and to the international community. The human rights record of the Indian Army is absolutely above board.” He also said “I don’t think we should get too concerned about the report. Some of these reports are motivated.”

As per official figures from 1994 till May 31 this year, 1,037 allegations of human rights violations were leveled against the Army. Out of these 1,022 were investigated and 991 were found to baseless while 31were true. Following due procedure, 70 Army personnel were meted out punishment, officials said.

Earlier, the Army chief stressed the need for exploiting cyber space for defence forces. Addressing the seminar, he said “we must also develop niche capabilities to disable the adversaries’ system.”

Pointing out that almost all the systems, be it weapons, equipment, ammunition that are used in the armed forces employ some kind of technology which takes advantage of the cyber space, Rawat said this also makes them vulnerable to the attacks from adversaries.

The cyber space, he stressed, is not only important in conventional warfare, but it is also equally relevant in the sub-conventional warfare or proxy war. “Today, the terrorists operating against us from across the borders are very tech-savvy. They are exploiting cyber space for their advantage. If we don’t stay ahead of them, we will never be able to get over the phenomena of terrorism,” Rawat said. He also cited the example of how China is ramping up its capabilities in the cyber warfare.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, Thursday, 28 June 2018 | PNS | NEW DELHI