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More posts will be added in Kargil-Drass, says Gen Malik

Chief of army staff Gen V P Malik today stated that more posts would be added in the Kargil-Drass sectors to ensure that there was no resurgence of the dimensions of the recent conflict there.

The army has also undertaken steps towards modernisation, the army chief said but refused to go into the details.

Gen Malik pointed out that the border is ''alive at many places'', while speaking informally to reporters in Pune today, where he was the chief guest at the convocation ceremony of a management institution.

All necessary measures are being taken to ensure that no intrusion can take place, the army chief stressed while admitting that infiltration was still continuing and there was no cessation of cross-firing even after the mission in Kargil had been accomplished. There have been heavy artillery shelling from across the Line of Control, Gen Malik said, adding that there has been no ceasefire on both sides.

While acknowledging that Indian Air Force had played a useful role in the Kargil conflict, Gen Malik said the army's own aviation corps will require some expansion considering the lethality of air power. "The Kargil war," he said, "was thrust upon us and in the end of it all, we have emerged stronger as a nation." The whole nation stood together during the conflict which helped the armed forces to achieve their aim.

National integration, he said, was the tangible result of the Kargil operations. To a query relating to the intelligence failure, the general quipped that it is not possible to know everything about the other side. Had this been possible, the Kargil conflict would not have occurred at all, he said.

UNI

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