Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Bipin Rawat on Thursday said de-radicalisation camps were operating in the country as it was necessary to isolate people who had been completely radicalised.

It was the first time that a top-ranking official had publicly spoken about the existence of de-radicalisation camps in India.

Girls and boys, as young as 10 and 12, were being radicalised in the Valley, the former army chief said in an address at the multilateral Raisina Dialogue while dwelling on the situation in Kashmir.

“These people can still be isolated from radicalisation in a gradual way. But there are people who have been completely radicalised. These people need to be taken out separately, possibly taken to some de-radicalisation camps,” he said.

“We have got de-radicalisation camps going on in our country,” the Chief of Defence Staff added. Pakistan too has de-radicalisation camps, Gen. Rawat said. “Let me tell you, even Pakistan is doing the same. Pakistan also has de-radicalisation camps as they have understood that the terrorism that they have been sponsoring is actually hitting back at them.”

Rawat also cited the US model of tackling terror and said: “We have to bring an end to terrorism and that can only happen the way the Americans started after 9/11. Let’s go on a spree on global war on terror and let the nations join and fight terrorism together….”