'Terrorists avoid direct conflict with forces'

New Delhi, Jul 27: The Government today informed the Lok Sabha that terrorists avoid direct contact with Army due to the ascendency gained by the security forces.

Stating this in a written reply, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said during January to June 2006, the Army has killed 268 terrorists while the total number of soldiers killed during the same period is 23.

He said the upgradation and improvement of security arrangements to contain the terrorist attacks on the Army is a continous process.

It includes improvement in intelligence gathering, periodic review of security of military establishments, intensification of patrolling for surveillance and area domination, deployment of Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) and conduct of synergised intelligence based operations in adjoining areas, provision of state-of-the-art weapons and equipment to soldiers.

In response to another question, Mr Mukherjee said it is not possible to lay down any time frame for the review of the military laws.

He said the review of military laws is a continous process.

These laws are amended from time to time as per operational needs of the Armed Forces as also to bring in consonance with latest judicial pronouncements and developments.

He said so far, 16 amendments have been made in the three Armed Forces Acts. These are Army Act of 1950, the Navy Act of 1957 and the Air Force Act of 1950.

In the existing system of administration of justice in the Armed Forces, there is no provision for an independent adjudicatory forum for hearing appeals on the judgement of Court Martial or for hearing complaints of defence personnel relating to service matters.

The Supreme Court, Law Commission and the Estimates Committee of Parliament had earlier drawn attention to this aspect and made recommendations in this regard.

The issue was also engaging the attention of the Government for quite some time.

After careful consideration, the Government has proposed to set up an independent Armed Forces Tribunal and accordingly a Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in December, last year. The Bill was referred to the Standing Committee in its 10th report related to Armed Forces Tribunal Bill, 2005 presented to the Lok Sabha on May 23, this year and laid on the table of Rajya Sabha on the same date, have made several recommendations on the bill, he added.

He said the Standing committee has also suggested than an expert committee be constituted to thoroughly review the Service Acts to bring them in tune with the norms being followed in other democratic countries. The Standing Committee has further desired that since the proposed Tribunal would deal with cases of all the three forces, a common disciplinary code be made so as to bring uniformity in dispensation of justice to the Armed Forces Personnel, the Defence Minister added.

UNI

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