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| Army not to seek assistance from any country in fighting terror | | |
Jammu, June 17
The Indian Army had no plan
for seeking "assistance" from any armies in the world
in its ongoing counterinsurgency operations in the
troubled Jammu and Kashmir state.
This was stated by General Officer commanding in
Chief,Northern Command,Lt.Gen. H.S.Panag,at a news
conference in the command's headquarters at
Udhampur. Panag was
replying to a question regarding recent visit of a
seven member Israeli Army delegation to Jammu and
Kashmir and said "the Israeli
team was not here to
assist us in counter insurgency operations."
The Army commander said "we have the best Army and
other countries seek our assistance in handling a
situation similar to the one that exists in Jammu and
Kashmir."He added "our troops are fully equipped and
trained to take on the militants."
The Israeli Army delegation,led by Deputy Chief of
General staff,Major General Moshe Kaplinsky,had
visited 16 crops at Nagrota and some forward areas in
Poonch and Rajouri where its members discussed with
the Indian Army officers the pattern they had adopted
in checking infiltration from across the LOC and the
activities of militants.
Gen. Panag said,in reply to another question,that
"demilitarisation was out of question till the level
of infiltration from across the border dropped to zero
and militants stopped their subversive activities."He
made it clear that the troops had been deployed
within the state on the request of the state
Government and on the direction of the Indian
Government."We will withdraw troops to the barracks
once
militancy was over and the Indian Government
ordered us to do." He said " not more than 80,000
soldiers were deployed within the state for counter
insurgency operations and rest of the troops were
deployed on the LOC and others were in the barracks."He
between 1100 and 1200 militants were operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Army commander said that as compared to the last
year the level of infiltration from across the LOC had
registered marginal increase.He said that during the
first six months of last year 118 incident of
infiltration had been tackled by the Indian
troops
against 137 during the corresponding period this year.
With regard to the recent circulation of a CD by an
activists of Al Qaeda the Army commander said "though
the investigations in the matter by the Indian
intelligence agencies were in progress,we believe that
there is no Al Qaeda
presence in Jammu and Kashmir."
He said "several years ago one Afghan militant had
been arrested and he was linked with Al Qaeda but
thorough investigation had revealed that he did not
belong to Al Qaeda outfit."
Regarding Indian pull out from the Siachen mountain
glacier Gen. Panag said "Indian troops will be
withdrawn from the worlds' highest battlefield since
1984 only when India and Pakistan sign an agreement on
the demarcated border on the basis of the present
status of the forces."He added "we cannot afford any
complacency because Pakistani."
troops have infiltrated into our territory from
across Kargil and Gurez
sectors in the past."
When asked about upward trend in fratricide in the
troops the Army commander said "we have taken in hand
several measures for checking these incidents.Yoga
lessons have been introduced for reducing the level of
stress among the soldiers."
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