Two soldiers were arrested and beaten by the police for alleged misbehaviour in Arunachal Pradesh's Bomdila. This resulted in a stand-off between the civilian and military forces. Army chief General Bipin Rawat has now acknowledged that the issue could have been settled amicably
New Delhi: Aiming to defuse the tension between civilian and military officials, following a scuffle between the troops of an Army unit and policemen in Arunachal Pradesh’s Bomdila, Army chief General Bipin Rawat suggested that certain mistakes were committed by the men in olive green too and the issue should have been resolved amicably.
Two soldiers were arrested and beaten by policemen in Bomdila. The Army troops retaliated and a video of the commanding officer of the 2 Arunachal Scouts battalion warning policemen against touching his men had gone viral on social media.
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While interacting with a group of officers a couple of days ago in Nashik, during the induction ceremony of the K9 Vajra and M777 howitzers, General Rawat mentioned that the issue started when two soldiers of the unit were reprimanded by a woman constable over alleged misbehaviour at a public event.
A couple of senior officers who had attended the Nashik meeting with the Army chief said that while narrating the incident, General Rawat said the constable also hit the soldiers, who retaliated immediately. After the confrontation, the constable called her colleagues, who took the soldiers to the police station.
Senior military and civilian officials said the Army chief's attempt to ease the tension was welcome as the issue was a minor one and did not deserve the kind of attention it had been getting.
The military officials had blamed the policemen and IAS officers for violating legal procedures and said they should not have beaten up the two soldiers who allegedly were in an inebriated state. Several retired and serving military officers have stood behind the commanding officer of the Army unit for standing behind his men.
The matter had turned worse after the IAS and IPS officers' associations complained publicly against the behaviour of the military officials alleging that the military had attacked police personnel and the district collector.
Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her Diwali celebrations in Arunachal Pradesh, had visited Bomdila along with minister of state for home affairs Kiren RIjiju to assess the civilian versus military situation.
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