Pak bleeding India, can't shake hands with them: Army

The army on Friday made it clear to Pakistan that it cannot keep the tap of exporting terrorism to India open and hope for confidence-building measures with it.

"They are bleeding us and you want us to shake hands with you at the military level. I think that is not done. We got to be fair and there has to be level-playing field," Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh said and accused the neighbour of having "double standards" when it says that terrorists were not under its control and conceals them as non-state actors.

"The term CBM has got to be preceded by addressing trust deficit. You cannot talk of these things for endless years the way the things are going on. You cannot afford to keep open this tap of exporting terrorism to India. You have to check that and only then we can move forward," he said.

The army chief was answering queries at the India Today conclave about the army being opposed to the CBMs between India and Pakistan.

Gen Singh said "things can improve" if Pakistan tells India that it can come and take stock of terror infrastructure there.

"You cannot have double standards. You say they are not in our control but yet we have non-state actors. They are bleeding us and you want us to shake hands with you at the military level. I think that is not done. We got to be fair and there has to be level-playing field.

The army chief said any decision on the CBMs has to be preceded by both the armies addressing trust deficit.

"This is something we have to do because we cannot be talking of something else and doing something else," he said.       

He cited the example of Pakistan army's double speak during Kargil war where first it disowned its troops present in Indian territory only to later say that its officers had ventured into Indian territory during that time.

"Let us be sensitive to each other's aspirations, let us go ahead with civility," he said referring to the issue of beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistani troops.