General Bipin Rawat, the chief of the Army staff, told officers in Kashmir not to play golf, after he saw a few senior ones do so in a Srinagar cantonment while bodies of martyred soldiers were being brought in, Army sources say.

The sources say this happened when Rawat visited the headquarters of the 15 Corps, part of the Army’s Northern Command, in Badami Bagh. They say he sent out an internal communication.

RISE IN PEOPLE JOINING MILITANCY

There has been a constant rise in the number of people joining militancy in Kashmir since 2014. A senior police officer recently told the Press Trust of India that as many as 243 terrorists, including 59 foreigners, were operating in the Valley.

Jammu and Kashmir is currently under governor’s rule. Last month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew from the ruling coalition, toppling Mehbooba Mufti’s government. The BJP blamed its former alliance partner, the Peoples Democratic Party, for failing to improve security conditions in the Valley.

General Rawat later told reporters that military operations would continue as earlier, and that governor’s rule was unlikely to have any impact on them.