After Major Gogoi Incident, Hizbul Asks Kashmiri Women To Avoid Coming Into Contact With Army Men

In an audio clip released after the controversy involving Major Leetul Gogoi and a Kashmiri woman at a hotel here, the Hizbul Mujahideen has asked girls from the valley to desist from coming into contact with Army personnel as the former were being used as ¡°honey trap¡± to catch militants.

¡°The Army has touched a new low by employing Kashmiri girls as honey trap after using them as spies,¡± Hizbul commander Riyaz Naikoo said in the audio clip.

¡°We have received information that the Army is luring girls and using them to spy on mujahideen. The Army is blackmailing girls and pitting them against us," he said in the audio clip that has gone viral in the Kashmir valley.

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The audio clip comes days after Major Gogoi was briefly detained by the police along with the Kashmiri woman and a third person following an altercation over them getting a room in a Srinagar hotel.

The woman had subsequently told a magistrate last week that Major Gogoi was her ¡°Facebook friend¡± and that she had gone to see him ¡°of her own free will¡±.

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In the audio clip, Naikoo accused the Army of ¡°sponsoring tours as a weapon to create a web of spies¡± and warned parents to desist from sending their daughters to such tours.

As part of its ¡®sadbhavana¡¯ (goodwill) mission, the Army, among other things, takes school children from the valley to various places of the country.

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Taking exception to such programmes, Naikoo warned, ¡°We will not spare those parents who send their girls on Army tours. Teachers, too, will face the brunt if they force students to undertake Army tours¡­I urge youth not to fall prey to army's tactics and become informers.¡±

He also alleged that the Army was ¡°pushing Kashmiri youth to waywardness through drugs and other immoral activities¡±.