Time not ripe to scale down troops in Kashmir: Singh

Bangalore, Aug 17 (UNI) Chief of Army Staff General J J Singh today said ''the time was not ripe to scale down the level of troops in Kashmir.'' Speaking to newspersons after flying the mechanised version of indigenous Advanced Flight Helicopter Dhruv the HAL Helicopter Division here, he said Kashmir was a border State and the border issues had remained unresolved with both China and Pakistan, with these countries becoming different perceptions.

He said there was no reduction in troop level in Kashmir but there had been a replacement of battalions.

General Singh sought to know the rationale for reducing troops when armed terrorists were infiltrating into the State with teething problems like terrorists crossing the border, serious law and order problems in hinter land of Kashmir and unresolved border issues, it is not possible to reduce the troop level in Kashmir in the near feature, he said.

''I do not understand why the media is raking up this issue again and again. Army is given the task of guarding the borders of the country and we are doing just that,'' he added.

He, however, said Confidence Building Measures(CBM) were continuing and the country was engaged in dialogue with China and Pakistan.

The ceasefire had been honoured for the last three years, bus and train services were running smoothly between the two countries and army-to-army problems were being solved in the flag level meetings, he noted.

He said the army was proud of the indigenous defence-based industry. ''We want to give them maximum encouragement to produce guns, aircraft and ships and be well equipped when the nation is challenged,'' he added.

He said HAL had done a great job in developing aircraft and equipment for the armed forces. ''ALH has inspired me. I first flew on this machine during operation ''Parakram'' in Rajasthan. Now I am glad that we will have weaponised version of the ALH by next year.

The Indian army would have the third squadron of 40 weaponised ALH.

He said the problems with the aircraft faced earlier were solved by the HAL. ''The fan dampaner and aris dampaner had done the trick.

Now the ALH is as good as any other helicopter you can get in the world,Gen Singh observed.

''The prototype of weaponised ALH will take time to mature but I am confident that it will meet the challenges faced by the army. ALH fitted with Shakthi engine will be inducted after the weaponised version comes into the army'', he said.

UNI