Taking advantage of the situation arising from the October earthquake and the large-scale relief and rehabilitation efforts, terrorists have been pushed into Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistan side, Army Chief General JJ Singh has said.
"Intelligence inputs reveal that some terrorists were pushed across the Line of Control (LoC) in the weeks following the earthquake taking advantage of our preoccupation in the relief efforts," the Chief of Army Staff said in an interview to the premier journal, Indian Defence Review.
In the aftermath of the devastating quake, "the Army willingly came forward for the establishment of five crossing points on the LoC, as part of the national policy, to provide relief to people of Pak-occupied Kashmir", he said.
These actions, Singh said, were aimed at giving fillip to the ongoing dialogue process and to elicit positive response from Pakistan in putting an end to the proxy war.
"Unfortunately, that was not to be and the infiltration continues unabated," he said.
Elaborating on the 'Iron Fist in Velvet Glove' policy adopted by the Army in Jammu and Kashmir, he said it had led the security forces to reap rich dividends. Besides inflicting severe attrition on the terrorist cadres, the Army has earned tremendous goodwill of the people of the state.
{{/usCountry}}Elaborating on the 'Iron Fist in Velvet Glove' policy adopted by the Army in Jammu and Kashmir, he said it had led the security forces to reap rich dividends. Besides inflicting severe attrition on the terrorist cadres, the Army has earned tremendous goodwill of the people of the state.
{{/usCountry}}The Army's actions were "fully in sync with the approach being adopted in the ongoign dialogue process," Singh said.
"The force levels in J&K are under constant review and any reduction will be influenced by the overall security environment," he said.