Kargil:
With reports of some terrorists having moved from North Waziristan after operations by Pakistan there, the Chief of the Northern Army Command Lieutenant General DS Hooda says that India needs to remain vigilant about infiltration and the possible fallout of the operations in North Waziristan.
"We are very closely looking at Pakistani operations which are carrying on in North Waziristan, and whether there is some spillover because there are reports of terrorists from those areas of having moved on from those areas and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is a neighboring area to that, so whether there is any manifestation of that, and of course the larger Afghan issue," Lieutenant General Hooda told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Lieutenant General Hooda was speaking to NDTV on the eve of the 15th Kargil Diwas, an annual ceremony in remembrance of the Indian army soldiers who laid down their lives during the Kargil War with Pakistan in 1999.
The Northern Army Command, that Lieutenant General Hooda leads, is the country's most operationally active command as it looks after the land borders with China and Pakistan. It is also responsible for looking after the Siachen Glacier region, the world's highest battlefield.
In his response to a question on the army's summer strategy of counter-infiltration, Lieutenant General Hooda said that the army's key challenges would revolve around the ongoing Amarnath trip as well as the elections in Jammu and Kashmir, expected to be held in October.
"We had to do some re-deployments to make sure that the Amarnath Yatra is successful and similarly as the election comes closer, a little more domination of the areas in the hinterland," Lieutenant General Hooda added.
The Indian Army continues to battle repeated ceasefire violations on the Line of Control from time to time. Last week, the Defence Minister informed Parliament that Pakistan had violated the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir 19 times since the new BJP-led government came to power.