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Will neutralize any militant on Indian soil: Army chief
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 11/8/2017 1:42:14 PM
‘Evident terrorists getting support across the border’
NEW DELHI, Nov 7 (Agencies): Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said the army would neutralise any militants entering Indian territory, after Indian forces killed the nephew of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar in Pulwama in a gunfight.
The Army chief also said the recovery of an assault rifle used by NATO forces in Afghanistan with the killed Jaish militants showed that they were getting support from the other side of the border, in a reference to Pakistan.
Talha Rasheed, nephew of Masood Azhar, was among three militants killed in a gunfight with forces in Aglar village in Pulwama in south Kashmir on Monday night.
“Operations are going on. As I said, the operations will continue. If any militants carry out activities that put the life and property of our citizens at risk, if they target any building, police station or army, they are troubling the citizens. Our attempt would be to neutralise whoever is involved in terror activities,” General Rawat said on the sidelines of an event in Delhi.
“Whether it is the nephew of Maulana Masood or anyone else, we are concerned only with finishing terror. We are not concerned what is their religion or other things,” he said.
Along with Rasheed, two more militants - Mehmood Bhai, a foreigner, and Wasim Ahmed Ganai, a local militant were killed.
Among the items recovered from the slain militants, were M4 carbines, a shorter and lighter variant of the American origin M-16 A2 assault rifle. The seizure comes days after a picture of a Hizbul Mujahideen militant was circulated on social media holding another variant of the M-16 rifle.
The American origin gun is used by NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Asked about the presence of the weapon with the militants, General Rawat said, “You can see sometime back this weapon was shown in media that they have this weapon. It shows they are getting support across the border.”
The forces also recovered AK-74 rifles, pistols, and matrix sheets from the militants. One army soldier was also killed in the firefight.
Two days ago, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had visited the forward area post in Arunachal Pradesh’s Kibihutu for the first time after assuming the charge of defence ministry, to which China has protested, saying “the area was disputed land.”
The Army Chief said, “The Raksha Mantri (defence minister) visits the forward areas to meet the troops in person and understands various issues engulfing them. Visits by the Raksha Mantri are always a source of motivation for the troops. The minister has to visit the areas where the troops are deployed. After all, it’s the ministry of Defence which provides support to us.”
Prior to Sitharaman’s visit, the Chinese administration had also raised question over spiritual guru the Dalai Lama’s visit in Tawang in April this year and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tour in 2015.