New army chief to visit Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday

JAMMU - New Indian Army chief General V.K. Singh will visit Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday for the first time since assuming office.

Singh will visit all the three major regions of the state - Jammu, Ladakh and the Kashmir Valley. He will review the situation with Northern Command chief Lt. General B.S. Jaswal, and the corps commanders about the level of preparedness along the Line of Control, as also along the Line of Actual Control — the border with China in Ladakh region — in light of incursions from across.

“Preparations are on for the visit and each and every detail of the army’s strategy and its challenges will be placed before the new chief,” an army officer told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

The new army chief’s statement last week that dilution in the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir and other insurgency-hit areas in India would hurt the operations of the army, has not gone down well with the separatists.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on April 16 had challenged Singh’s assessment.

During his visit, it is expected that Singh and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will discuss AFSPA and its pros and cons. They will also discuss the killing of 70-year-old Habibullah Khan in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district last week. Khan was first dubbed a militant and then a guide by the army.

His killing has caused a great deal of anger in the Kashmir Valley.