Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbagh Singh on Monday backed the idea of setting up “de-radicalisation camps” in Kashmir, prompting a politician to say the people would resent such a move.

“Some of our (Kashmir’s) youths… young minds have got affected (radicalised). This (de-radicalisation camps) should happen. It will definitely help people,” the director-general of police told reporters in Srinagar.

Singh had been asked whether he supported the recent call by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, for such camps in Kashmir. Singh’s is the first influential voice to back the idea in the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

National Conference MP Baramulla Akbar Lone said such facilities would cause resentment in Kashmir. “I don’t think there is any radicalisation here. People are fighting for their political rights,” he told The Telegraph.

DGP Singh said it would be a “good sign” if such camps came up in Kashmir and claimed that Pakistan was spreading radicalisation here.

He said that security agencies had noticed that detained Kashmiri youths did not seem to be “talking much sense” during their conversations with officials. He did not elaborate but suggested they spoke a radical language.