Kashmir jeep row: Ram Madhav hails Army, says many lives were saved

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav today complimented an army officer responsible for tying a man to a jeep's bonnet in Kashmir, saying "everything is fair in love and war" and the "harsh" decision saved lives of civilians and soldiers.

The party's pointsman & Jammu and Kashmir also said the current Kashmir situation is "certainly troubling" but expressed confidence that the PDP-BJP government will handle it.

"The situation is difficult but such situations have been there in the Valley so many times before," he told CNN-News18, according to a press release.

Asked about the controversial video showing the civilian tied to the army jeep, Madhav said nobody wants this but justified the act saying if one person's human rights are violated in order to protect the human rights of many more, he will leave that judgement to the officer concerned.

"I will compliment him for the decision that he took. He saved the lives of the people in police station, officials and all, and also his own boys. He also did not allow any civilian casualty," he said.

Had the army not done so, then the mob there would have lynched over 50 civilians and almost equal number of security personals there, Madhav claimed.

The other option before the army was to fire indiscriminately because the officer had about 10 soldiers with him, and this would have caused civilian casualties, he said.

The incident happened because reinforcements could not reach in time, he said.

Madhav also criticised the controversial statement made by a state minister calling for "bullets against stones" and said politicians should leave these matters to security forces.