M A I N   N E W S

This officer reaches out to Kashmir’s awam
Lt-Gen SA Hasnain speaks in Urdu, praises their ‘tehzeeb’ and talks peace
Tejinder Singh Sodhi
Tribune News Service

Beerwah (Budgam), July 11
Although he is the senior-most officer of the Army who looks after the security of the entire Kashmir valley and the Line of Control here, he misses no opportunity to reach out to the common people to listen and address their grievances.

It is because of his easy accessibility to the common man here that the people have started calling General officer-in-Commanding of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps of the Army Lt-Gen SA Hasnain as the “People’s General”.

“For the first time, a senior-most officer of the Army posted in the Valley came to meet us, listened to our problems and issued orders to redress them,” said Ghulam Qadir a resident of Beerwah town in the Budgam district, where General Hasnain came to hold a meeting with the common people today.

A large number of people from various far-off villages of the districts had gathered to listen to him. After interacting with the people, he listened to their grievances and problems faced by them.

Interacting with people, General Hasnain said the Army was there to help the people of the Kashmir valley. The current year was being observed as the year of “Zero Human Rights Violations” and the year of the “Awam”, he added.

The programme, organised by the 35 Rashtriya Rifles, was attended by top officials of the state and the district administration besides over 1,000 local people.

He thanked people for their presence and the “tehzeeb” - so identified with Kashmiriyat - they displayed throughout the function. Besides exhorting the people to help in preserving peace and enhancing literacy standards and saving the environment, he also assured them of paying due diligence towards various problems being faced by them, including setting up of an Army Goodwill School and the inconvenience caused to the locals around the Toshe-e-Maidan Field Firing Area.

The common people who interacted with the GOC expressed their gratitude and said they were touched by the warmth and open-mindedness of the officer who not only listened to their grievances but also issued on-the-spot orders to redress them.