Supporting Jihadi groups to have serious consequences: Indian Army chief

PUNE: Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Sunday expressed concern over the alleged presence of jihadi outfits in Pakistan with fundamentalist ideologies, reports the Times of India.

“Pakistan’s unabated reliance and support to jihadi groups has serious ramifications. This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for eastward spread of fundamentalist and Islamic ideology. This lends a complex dimension to the threat not only for us, but also for other countries of South and East Asia, including China,” General Rawat added.

General Rawat was in the city to deliver General B C Joshi Memorial Lecture, titled, “India’s challenges in the current geo-strategic construct”, at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.Army Commander Southern Command Lt Gen P M Hariz, Pune University Vice-Chancellor Nitin Karmalkar, former army chief V P Malik, former air force chief P V Naik as well as senior serving and retired officers were also present on the occasion.

The army chief said China continued to enhance influence in the regional security environment. “It is doing so by increasing defence/economic partnerships in the neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passing through Pakistan-administered Kashmir challenges India’s sovereignty,” General Rawat said.

The army chief said the Indian Army would take all actions necessary to negate, mitigate and destroy elements involved in planning or taking actions inimical to India’s security interests.

Blaming China for the ongoing standoff at Doklam, near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction, General Bipin Rawat said the standoff was a consequence of China’s attempt to change the “status quo.” The army chief hinted that there might be more incidents like the Doklam stand-off in the future in other sectors and asked the troops deployed on the borders to remain alert.

“We are having flag meetings with China. During these meetings, we are telling them that we (India and China) should go back to the pre-June 16 position at the Doklam plateau. But we haven’t been able to come up with a resolution as there aredifferent perceptions about how it should be done. Hence, it should be dealt with at diplomatic and political levels," Rawat said.

Advising the troops to stay prepared and alert on the borders, General Rawat said, "The troops should not be complacent. Let's say, this stand-off gets resolved, but our troops on the border should not feel that it cannot happen again. Such instances are likely to increase in the future. It is better to remain prepared and alert. My message to the troops is not to let down the guard."

Commenting on the recent scuffle between the troops of both the countries in the Ladakh region, General Rawat said both the countries had joint mechanism to resolve such issues amicably.

"The Line of Actual Control (LAC) has not yet been settled between the two countries, and hence each country has a different perception about it. So, at times, you have a clash as each one tries to patrol the area up to its limits. But these things are normal. Our aim is not to escalate things. We are living on the border peacefully," the army chief told the reporters on the sidelines of the lecture.

Speaking about China, General Rawat said, Chinese armed forces had made significant progress in capabilities regarding force mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations. "This is due to the development of infrastructure of military significance. Their force reorganisation, along with developing capabilities in space and network centric warfare, is likely to provide them greater synergy in force application," he said.