Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat hints at war against Pakistan at LoC
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NEW DELHI: India has to be prepared for escalation in the situation along the Line of Control with Pakistan, said Army chief General Bipin Rawat link
on Wednesday.
He claimed that the Pakistan link
army continues to attempt BAT (border action team) operations as well as indulge in heavy cross-border firing after J&K’s special status was abrogated in August.
"The situation along the LoC can escalate any time. We have to be prepared for the spiraling of the escalatory matrix," said General Rawat.
The Army is maintaining a high level of operational readiness, with detailed plans chalked out to cater for different contingencies.
He claimed Army thwarted yet another BAT operation by the Pakistan Army in the Sunderbani sector along the LoC but lost a soldier while another one was injured in the heavy exchange of firing on Monday.
"Pakistan is attempting BAT actions almost every third day. We keep on foiling them and taking retaliatory action,” said a source.
This has been a particularly violent year along the 778-km LoC, with as many as 2,900 ceasefire violations (CFVs) also being recorded till now to break all annual records since 2003.
The intensity of the cross-border firings, with both sides often deploying heavy mortars, anti-tank guided missiles and artillery guns, first registered a major spike after IAF fighters conducted the pre-dawn air strikes on the major Jaish-e-Mohammed facility at Balakot in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on February 26, Times of India has reported.
Pakistan had retaliated on February 27 by sending a “strike package” of 24 fighters, including F-16s, JF-17s and Mirage-5 attack jets, to target Indian military installations in the Nowshera sector across the LoC, which included a brigade headquarters and an ammunition dump.
