'Matter of concern': Indian Army chief on prevailing condition in Jammu & Kashmir

Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Manoj Pande on Thursday (Jan 11) said the increase in terror activities in Rajouri and Poonch districts of the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir in the last 5-6 months was an "issue of concern".

Pande was speakingat the annual press conference ahead of Army Day where he touched upon the myriad security threats India is facing currently.

"The situation and terrorist activities in Rajouri and Poonch in the last 5–6 months have been an issue of concern to us," said General Pande.

"If you see...before 2003 terrorism in that area was eradicated, and peace was there till 2017/18. But now, because of the situation normalising in the Valley, our adversaries are active there," he added.

The Army chief stated that the rise in proxy wars could be gauged by the fact that in the last three years, as many as 45 terrorists were eliminated in these areas.

"Last year alone there were five infiltration bids, which were foiled, and six terrorists were eliminated in those attempts. Even in the hinterland about 14 terrorists were neutralised," he further said.

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As for the overall situation inJ&K, he said the ceasefirealong the Line of Control (LoC) continues to hold, even though routine infiltration attempts are recorded.

The COAS also provided an update on the Indo-Myanmar border, referring to the impact ofactivities by the Myanmar army and ethnic armed organisations.

"The situation at the Indo-Myanmar border is of concern to us. You are aware of the activities of the Myanmar army, the ethnic armed organization and the PDF in the past couple of months, which has resulted in some of the Myanmar army personnel walking across about 416 of them to date," said Pande.

He further said that cross border situation had allowed "some of the insurgent groups to come onto our side of the border in the state of Manipur" which combined with the delicate situation in the Indian state, had kept the authorities on their toes.

He said the army had restructured its artillery, electronic warfare and electronic intelligence unit in an attempt to keep up with the changing times.

(With inputs from agencies)