If Pakistan refuses to flush out terrorists, India will do it for them

After China reversed their stand on terrorism, a miffed India was forced to send a warning to Pakistan. General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Northern Command, Lt. Gen D Ambu, has warned Pakistan that the Indian Army will conduct more surgical strikes if Pakistan doesn’t stop supporting terrorist activities.

He further emphasized that the LoC isn’t a line that can’t be breached and that the army will repeat what it did in September 2016 if needed. “Surgical strike was a point we wanted to drive home across that LoC is not a line that cannot be breached,” he said. “When and if we want to, we will be able to breach (LoC), go across and strike when we need. He talked on the issue of infiltration from the Pakistani side saying “While lot of attempts are made (to infiltrate), but most are not successful, there has been a sharp decline. Terrorists continue to try to infiltrate, we have been foiling their attempts to infiltrate into Kashmir valley/Jammu region.”

This warning of the GOC was not an informal statement, or a comment to keep Pakistan on its toes. The GOC says that the number of terror camps and launch pads across the LoC in PoK has gone up in the last few months and around 475 militants are waiting to infiltrate India.

Lt Gen Ambu added, “A large number of terrorist camps and launch pads exist across south and north of Pir Panjal, they have not decreased.” He did say that NIA raids on separatists and the regular killings of militants including those of top leaders have brought the situation in the Valley under control. As of date 144 militants have been killed by the Indian Army in the Valley.

The rise in the number of militants could be due to the fact that the Indian Army has gone on an unparalleled offensive against terrorists, and terror groups across the border are now relying on more numbers.

Their frustration with the top commanders being hunted down is forcing them to raise the number of infiltrations thereby raising the probability of success of infiltrating terrorists. The surgical strike last year was meant as a message to Pakistan that India will take pre-emptive action against terrorists backed by its army who threaten India.