Pakistan should be pressurised to return Hemraj's head: Army chief

Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh on Monday said the Pakistan Army should be pressurised to return the head of Lance Naik Hemraj who was beheaded by its troops in Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

The army chief said he would also visit the home of Hemraj whose family has been on a fast for the last six days demanding that his head be brought back from Pakistan.

"We have to make the Pakistan Army accountable. There are diplomatic, political ways of doing it. As far as the Army is concerned, increasing force and violence is a national decision. We want the head back but what do you when a country and its Army are in denial mode?

"I think we should pressurise them nationally and internationally as part of our national element so that they are made accountable and they are made to return the head of our soldier which they have taken away," he said in his annual Army day press conference in Delhi.

Gen Singh said that for getting the head back, "it will be taken up at the government level and you will have to appreciate that this has to to be done through diplomatic channels.

"It will also be conveyed to the DGMO. It is also being conveyed today in no uncertain terms. Let us see if Pakistan Army heeds to our protest and complies to it," he said.