Indian Army chief walks fine line on Kashmir gun battles

NEW DELHI - The Indian Army chief, General V.K. Singh, Friday walked the fine line on gun battles between the security forces and the militants in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that just because one was assumed to be fake, the same label could not be applied to all the incidents that occurred in the state.

Addressing a press conference here on the eve of Army Day, Singh also noted that given the pressures of anti-India elements in the Kashmir Valley, justice for the armed forces was not possible in cases where gun battles were found to have been faked.

He was responding to a question on an alleged fake firefight in which three youth from Baramulla were killed in Macchil, along the Line of Control last April - all for medals.

“An incident like this (Machhil) cannot bring under cloud the type of anti-infiltration measures and encounters that take place (in the state).”

The army chief said he would not be able to comment on the outcome of the internal inquiry in the case as the report was yet to be finalised.

“It would be over generalisation on the part of anybody to link this (Machhil) to say that all other anti-infiltration measures are also fake or there are people who are to be doubted. It is not so,” he added.

At the same time, the army chief was forthright in commenting on the Kashmir Valley’s legal system.

“I do not know how much you know about the legal system in the (Kashmir) Valley. There are various pressures out there. You are aware of Mian Abdul Qayoom, who was the president of the bar association there and is now in detention. He has been rabidly anti-Indi.

“Now, in that kind of a situation, what kind of justice can be expected? It leaves a question mark if all legal provisions will be followed. That is why, as per procedures laid out, we said we would like to complete our inquiry before we come to any conclusion on what exactly happened (in Machil),” he said.

Noting that the inquiry in the case was in progress, he said the army investigation got delayed because the local courts had put a ban on witnesses deposin.

“After that, there was a lot of legal wranglings in trying to get the issue sorted out. There are legal procedures available in the army under which we would like to do an inuiry,” he said.

On the infiltration from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said the security forces were able to chek it “to a large etent.”

He said the infiltration efforts, though continuing, had seen a downward trend in the last two years. In 2009, as per Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) figures, there were 485 infiltration attempts, of which 114 were successful and the security forces had killed 40 militants in gun battles.

Last year, though, the infiltration figures went down to 468 attempts, of which only 95 were successful and the number of terrorists killed too was low at 40.

The army chief said the security forces were able to “plug the gaps” successfully after analysing the infiltration trends.

On the stone-pelting incidents in the Kashmir Valley last year, Singh said it was instigated by some terrorists and it was ensured that this factor was taken note of by the Unified Command set up to fight terrorism in the state.

–Indo Asian News Service