NEW DELHI – Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said Pakistan hasreactivated the terror camp in the Balakot area of Pakistan’s KhyberPakhtunkhwa Province, where the Indian Air Force (IAF) launched pre-dawnstrikes on 26 February this year.
Indian army has confirmed its readiness to respond with full force in orderto deter a threat which has been at its highest level in recent years,Sputnik has reported.
“Why must you expect a repeat of a similar thing? Earlier we did something,then we did Balakot. Why must we repeat…why tell him (the enemy) what weare going to do? Why not keep him guessing, why to say repeat? Why notsomething beyond that?” General Rawat replied when asked whether themilitary is mulling a similar kind of response.
The army chief said the number keeps fluctuating but “at least 500terrorists” are waiting to cross the border. Sources estimate that over 50terrorists have already crossed over to the Indian side in the last twomonths.
The army chief said that as the snow melts, terrorists have been waiting ata launchpad near Gurez, and nearby areas to infiltrate into the country.[image: Loading video]
In past few weeks, Indian authorities and military officers have accusedPakistan of reactivating the launch pad in retaliation for India’s decisionto scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August.
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Last Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned terroristsagainst spreading violence in Kashmir, saying the Indian authorities werewaiting for “any excuse” to crack down on the residents of Kashmir.
“If some terrorists or people from Pakistan go to India and he thinks hewill fight in Kashmir … the first person he will be inflicting cruelty onis the Kashmiris. He will have acted as an enemy of the Kashmiris andPakistan,” Khan told media recently.
The tension between the two nuclear-armed nations escalated after Indiacarried out an aerial strike in BalakotlinkinsidePakistan to destroy alleged terror infrastructure operated by theJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group. The move was to avenge the killing of40 Indian security personnel in a suicide bombing attack by JeMterrorist on 14 February.
