No infiltration across LoC after February ceasefire with Pak: Army Chief

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 1

Four months after India and Pakistan announced to “strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire” along the LoC, Army Chief General MM Naravane on Thursday said there had been a marked change since the ceasefire agreement as there had been no infiltration from across the LoC and all parameters of violence had dropped.

Speaking at a seminar, he touched upon the ceasefire understanding reached by Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan on February 26.

He said there would be forces that do not want peace to prevail. Since the latest ceasefire all parameters of violence like terror incidents in the valley had come down, he said, adding that sporadic incidents had occurred.

General Naravane, without referring to the recent drone attack on the air base at Jammu, said the offensive use of drones had changed the war scenario for the infantry, artillery or the armoured. Israel, he said, had credited its success against Hamas to artificial intelligence (AI).

The Indian Army, he said, had identified technology that is being followed up. We showcased the capability of 75 pre-programmed drones of attacking ‘targets’. “We are working to operationalise this capability to work at varying altitudes and at longer ranges.”

“AI is good but we have such peculiarities like unsettled land borders, so we need to have a mix-and-match option. We need to evolve as a technology-oriented Army but will have ‘boots on ground’ – a euphuism for having troops at important positions.

He said the advent of drones and counter drone systems had radically altered the way we would fight future wars. “Drones can be easily accessed and used by both state and non-state actors. We have to factor this in as we make our plans. We are fully seized of the issue of making sure that we are not found wanting in this regard,” the General said.

On China, the Army chief said the developments along our northern borders during the past year are a stark reminder that in order to preserve our territorial integrity the armed forces needed to continually prepare and adapt to the exigencies of modern wars.

“It is in the backdrop of this contemporary security environment that I approach today’s topic ‘Applications of Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning’,” he added.