Got 2,000 Hate Tweets, But Abhijeet's Was Most Negative: Lt Gen Panag

New Delhi: Lieutenant General Harcharanjit Singh Panag, who was trolled for criticising the Indian Army’s alleged use of a man as a ‘human shield’ in Kashmir, on Sunday said the “most negative" tweet he read was from singer Abhijeet, who called him a “Pak supporter".

Lt Gen Panag’s tweet that the image “would haunt the army forever" had met with a barrage of criticism and abuse, including from celebrities.

Speaking to CNN-News18 on Sunday, Lt Gen Panag said he had received around 2,000 hate tweets, but found the one by Abhijeet to be the “most negative".

In the tweet, Abhijeet had called Lt Gen Panag a “Pak supporter".

Hitting back, Lt Gen Panag tweeted:

“I am a small-timer on Twitter. I have just 40,000 hard-earned followers. My tweets are read by 1,000-odd people who probably want to hear a veteran’s viewpoint on certain issues. Then, my tweets get lost," he told CNN-News18.

“But the Right-wing trolls took my tweets to a larger audience. They campaigned against me, but ended up taking my message to everyone," he said.

Lt Gen Panag said the Army has never used a human shield as far as his knowledge goes. He added that a statement by the Army on the day the incident occurred would have helped the situation and allowed the Army to counter the narrative.

Asked if the Army was feeling the pressure of a political vacuum, the former Northern Army commander said that, he believed, the war had been won militarily, but lost politically. “In the 90s, when we used to go out for operations, women and children would lie down on the road. But we managed all that…. This is the first such incident since 1947. The Army should have issued a suo moto statement."