NEW DELHI – The Indian army will give Pakistan a reply “sooner rather thanlater” for the February 10 terror attack on a military camp in Jammu,General Bipin Rawat said.
Six soldiers and a civilian were killed in the *fidayeen attack in Sunjuwanby Jaish-e-Mohammed*link>(JeM)terrorists. Soon after the incident, defence minister Nirmala Sitharamanhad said that Pakistan, which she accused of backing the attackers, wouldpay for its “misadventure”.
“Pakistan thinks it is fighting a war that is paying them dividends but wehave several options, including surgical strikes,” the army chief said inan interview on Wednesday, without giving details that would compromiseIndia’s tactical and strategic response.
Rawat said that he would order a ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC) assoon as Pakistan stops sending terrorists to India. “The Indian Army willhonour the ceasefire and de-escalate tensions the day Pakistan stopssending terrorists across the line of control,” Rawat said, referring tothe 2003 agreement put in place as a confidence-building measure.
Ceasefire violations at the LoC have spiked over the last year. There were860 such violations recorded in 2017 from either side, as compared to 271the previous year, according to government data.
Asked about the January 27 firing in Shopian, in which three protestorswere killed by army bullets at a time when the PDP-BJP government hadwithdrawn cases against first-time stone-pelters on the suggestion of theCentre’s interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma, Rawat said: “The cases werewithdrawn as a goodwill gesture but what goodwill are they (the stonepelters) showing? The pelting continues.”
He defended the military action, saying stone-pelters were hamperingmilitary operations. “The army has a job to do. We don’t want collateraldamage but what do you expect us to do when we get surrounded by a stonepelting mob? Even in Shopian, we fired in the air first.”
Referring to the controversial incident when *Major Gogoi tied Kashmirishawl weaver Farooq Ahmad Dar*link>tothe bonnet of a jeep last year, “Let me tell you, we honour localsentiments and don’t conduct operations during janazas (funeralprocessions) even though terrorists come there and fire in the air. What doyou want me to do, have a seat in front of all jeeps. We got flak even forthat.”
The Jammu & Kashmir police had registered an *FIR against the army afterthe Shopian firing*link>.Asked if he had given permission to the father of Major Aditya (named inthe Shopian FIR) to approach the Supreme Court to get the police complaintquashed, Rawat said, “The father has a right to defend his son. If a girl(Kerala actress Priya Varrier) can approach the court because her wink hasoffended people can’t a father do the same if he apprehends that his sonwould be arrested?”
The General also had a piece of advice for the media: to not show visualsof grief-stricken family members of martyrs. “Because the media onlyfocuses on soldiers killed by Pakistan, they build a narrative on how theyhave managed to inflict a blow on us.” – Hindustan Times