'Motivated' people making it tough for govt to tackle Kashmir turmoil: Rijiju

As protests continued for the 21st day today in Kashmir, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said 'highly motivated' people in some parts of the Valley, who are 'out of national mainstream', were making it difficult for the government to improve the situation there.

Delivering a lecture on cyber security, Minister of State for Home Rijiju advocated for building a responsive society for any government to succeed and reasoned that any "adverse public mindset will create big hurdle which is difficult to take care of." 

He cited the example of Kashmir, which has been witnessing an unrest for the past three weeks after killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8. In the aftermath of this encounter, 47 people have died during protests.

"In Kashmir, in some of the places, what we have realised is that people are highly motivated and totally out of the national mainstream thought. The situation is very adverse. We face hostile attitude and in those kind of situation it is really difficult to get into the bottom of the things," he said.

The Minister said that state and central intelligence agencies should not allow "any gap" to come in while gathering the intelligence.

"You will find there is a gap (in) state intelligence agencies and central intelligence agencies. The sharing of information has to be seamless. If we have a gap, even a small gap, it can become a huge gap," he said. He said while technology made lives easier for a common man, it has also made it easier for the terrorists too.

"Sitting somewhere in Iraq or Syria, somebody can recruit someone from India. Cyber world is real and we need to understand it," Rijiju said.

When asked about his reaction on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's statement that security forces would have spared terrorist Burhan Wani if they had known about his presence during the encounter, Rijiju said that he has not heard what she has said and will be unable to comment on it.

He assured the industry that the government would cooperate and support them in framing policy required to secure cyber space.

Minister for State for Information Technology P P Chaudhary said Internet in the country is like nervous system which connects every organ in the body and hence securing it is of prime importance for the government.