Srinagar: Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane held several top-level meetings with ground commanders of the Army in Srinagar and also visited forward areas, especially after recent reports that the western border was also hotting up.
Reports said that the Army Chief has asked the commanders not to lower their guard even in the winters and most of the bunkers and other such Army facilities in the remote areas of North Kashmir close to the border will remain operational even in the harsh winters.
According to Army spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia, the Army Chief, during his interaction with jawans, in the high-altitude areas of North Kashmir, appreciated their efforts to frustrate the designs of infiltration from across the border.
With a “two-front war” being discussed in serious defence analysis chambers, in the recent past there have been multiple attempts from across the border to infiltrate terrorists and also to airdrop arms and ammunition in the Jammu region to be transported to Kashmir.
The visit of the Army Chief was to take some crucial decisions for the deployment of the Army in the forward areas of North Kashmir and also to review the operational preparedness of the forces and the security situation in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
In the past two weeks, there have been repeated ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts in North Kashmir and also in the Rajouri and Poonch areas.
Recently, the BSF detected a huge tunnel near the border in the Samba sector of Jammu and said that many terrorists have crossed to this side through such tunnels.
Security forces also intercepted a vehicle in the Jawahar tunnel on the Srinagar-Jammu highway recently, and recovered arms and ammunition. They interrogated the suspects who disclosed that Pakistan was airdropping these arms in various areas of Jammu especially along the International Border through drones. It is in place to mention that the Army Chief visited the forward areas of Ladakh on 3 September and asked the troops to remain alert. He reviewed the operational preparedness of the troops.
Meanwhile, the Army Chief in Srinagar met L-G Manoj Sinha in the Raj Bhawan and was accompanied by Lt. General Y.K. Joshi, Army Commander, Northern Command and Lt. General B.S. Raju, GOC, Chinar Corps. According to the official spokesman, they discussed several important issues related to effective management of internal and external security, particularly in the context of attempts at infiltration and steps required to be taken for more effectively dealing with terrorist activities.