Army believes foreign hostages in Kashmir are alive
The army is still working on the assumption that the four foreigners
kidnapped by militants on July 4, 1995, are alive, Lieutenant
General S Padmanabhan, GOC-in-C, Northern Command, has said.
''In such matters one must never lose hope, I consider the hostages
are very much alive,'' he told reporters during the platinum jubilee
celebrations of the Rashtriya Indian Military College in Dehra
Dun on Wednesday, March 19.
Every now and then reports keep coming in that the hostages had
been "sighted", he said. However, it has been some time
now since the last of such reports were heard, he conceded.
Padmanabhan said a separate team is looking into the "hostage
crisis" and the army is not directly involved in the case.
Talking about Siachin, he said, the Indian army is positioned
in an advantageous position there and the troops are in good shape.
''I visited Siachin on the Republic Day and they were happy,''
he added.
The jawans and officers have adequate modern equipment and clothing,
some of which has been imported, Padmanabhan said.
He felt that the glacier held no strategic importance for the
army and the decision to stay there was merely a political one.
The reason to stay needed rethinking, as 'the highest battleground
in the world ' had taken a heavy toll of lives and resources,
he added.
''The Siachin Glacier holds no military advantage but we guard
it as a part of Indian territory,'' he said.
When asked about militancy in Kashmir, he said it was on the decline
and would die out in about a year. ''Things have become much better
after the elected government in the state has taken over,'' he
added.
People have now starting dissociating with the militants, which
had eroded the support base of the insurgents. With no fresh recruits,
their numbers are decreasing, Padmanabhan said.
He said even as the militants have become fairly disorganised
now that the army has developed better intelligence network.
He, however, said ''fighting your own people is a painful job''.
''We deal with the miscreants with minimum force and are very
cautious about our actions.''
UNI
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