Army Chief lauds jawans on 100 days of ceasefire with Pakistan

New Delhi/Srinagar: On the eve of completion of 100 days of the ceasefire with Pakistan at the Line of Control, Army Chief Gen. M.M. Naravane on Wednesday reached Kashmir on a two-day visit to review the situation on the ground at the border and counter-terrorist operations in the Valley.

The Indian and Pakistani DGMOs had agreed to observe a ceasefire at the LoC from February 24 midnight in a major de-escalatory move. The truce has mostly held till now, even though there were reports of some firing incidents at the international border. The Pakistan Army used to fire to give cover to terrorists to infiltrate into J&K. India and Pakistan signed a truce agreement in 2003 but it was frequently violated.

The Army Chief on Wednesday visited units and formations where he was briefed by local commanders on the security situation and the steps being taken to identify and target the overground workers’ (OGWs) network involved in radicalisation and recruitment of youth into terrorist ranks. He was accompanied by Northern Command GOC-in-C Lt. Gen. Y.K. Joshi and 15 “Chinar” Corps commander Lt. Gen. D.P. Pandey. 

Gen. Naravane expressed appreciation to the jawans and commanders relentlessly battling the dual challenges of Pakistan-abetted terror and the global pandemic. He was briefed by Lt. Gen. Pandey on the overall situation at the LoC and the hinterland at the Badami Bagh headquarters of 15 Corps in Srinagar.

Gen. Naravane held a separate meeting with J&K lieutenant-governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhavan and is due to interact with civil officials and some others for a broader assessment of the overall security scenario.

A defence spokesman said the Army Chief was briefed by commanders in details on the measures to “identify and target” the OGWs’ network “involved in radicalisation and recruitment of youth into terrorist ranks”. As already reported by this newspaper, the number of Kashmiri separatists’ OGWs and sympathisers is swelling day after day, causing a serious concern among the security forces, who are combating a 31-year-old insurgency in J&K. In the past six months, the J&K police arrested several hundred OGWs of various militant outfits and a couple of dozen more are at present under their surveillance.

A J&K government spokesman said the Army Chief and the lieutenant-governor at their Raj Bhavan meeting discussed the “recent internal security developments and prevailing security scenario” in the UT and “several internal and external security-related issues and their effective management”. Mr Sinha, the spokesman said, stressed on the need to maintain close synergy between the Army and other security forces to meet the security challenges. Lt. Gen. Joshi and Lt. Gen. Pandey were present at the meeting.