General Rawat avowed that forces have been keeping a close watch in border areas.
“We don’t think Pakistan will attempt something like that (like during Kargil) because they have seen the consequences... I can clearly say, in coming days and years, Pakistan will not dare to attempt any infiltration,” the Army chief told reporters in New Delhi at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of Kargil War.
The army chief, who restructured the 1.3 million-strong Indian Army on Friday, reiterated that “there is no such area that we have left unguarded. Our surveillance team is keeping a tight watch and regularly patrolling the border areas”.
The restructuring, which was approved by the Defence Ministry on Friday, is set to boost India’s information warfare as now officers of Lt. General rank will monitor this aspect along with cyber warfare. The reorganisation has made it possible to send 229 officers to the field that were earlier posted at army headquarters in New Delhi.
India and Pakistan fought their first-ever war after becoming nuclear powers, over almost three months in the Kargil Sector of the disputed Kashmir territory.
Pakistan captured over 100 crucial strategic posts along the border which the Indian Army later evacuated, but with the loss of 530 soldiers and thousands more injured.
Twenty years after the Kargil War, the two nuclear-armed nations once again had a confrontation in Kashmir and reached a near war-like situation. The Indian Air Force conducted an airstrike in Balakot inside Pakistan, against alleged terror infrastructure in retaliation for the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama sector in which 40 Indian soldiers killed. The following day, Pakistan retaliated and shot down one Indian fighter jet.
