New Delhi, July 3

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said decades of militancy had shattered the education system in Jammu and Kashmir and it was one of factors behind stone-throwing protests in the state.He was interacting with some students of Chhattisgarh, who were on a trip to Delhi, when one of the them asked him why there were frequent stone-throwing incidents in Kashmir.General Rawat replied that Kashmiris were being fed with misinformation that India was anti-Muslim and those who eat beef were being killed.“They try to shield terrorists. They throw stones as these are easily available. Unemployment is a factor for this. However, it is not unique to Kashmir, there is unemployment in other parts of the country as well but youngsters there don’t pelt stones.”“Education there (Kashmir) is shattered. Most of the schooling is done through madrassas, which cannot get you good jobs.”He said the Army had two ways of dealing with the situation. “One is the harsh way, the other is to make them understand that what they are doing is wrong. We bring some of the people from there to Delhi to show them that we don’t have the Army in every corner here as Delhi is peaceful. If Kashmir is also peaceful, the Army will be taken away from there.” — IANS