Door To Door Survey By Indian Army Seen As Part Of New Plan

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2017 ) : The residents of south Kashmir's Bijbehara area of Islamabad district have complained that Indian soldiers are visiting house to house to collect details of the locals, including toddlers and infants.

The soldiers from a Rashtriya Rifles unit put a sign on the door of the house after gathering the information, Kashmir Media Service reported. The people are not happy with the door to door survey, saying the exercise is intimidating and breach of their privacy.

"Soldiers have been coming and asking minute details such as the number of family members, their Names, occupation, age, gender and all other things, village after village in the area," a resident of Bijbehara said.

In March, Rashtriya Rifles personnel deployed in Sopore area did a similar exercise, offending the locals.

Police were also criticized in February 2016 for a survey in Srinagar, in which people were asked to fill out a form giving details about their religion and sect.

Political observers see the move in the backdrop of the statement of former Indian Army Chief General, Shankar Roychowdhury, in which while admitting Kashmiris' psychological dissociation from India, he urged New Delhi to "utilise other channels" to counterbalance the trend.

For this, he suggested the division of Kashmiri society on ethnic, linguistic and sectarian lines. The survey is deemed to be part of the plan to execute the general's recommendations after gathering the required data.