Troops well deployed to prevent infiltration: Army chief

September 19, 2009 11:09 am | Updated November 17, 2021 06:52 am IST - Chennai

Chief of the Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor.

Chief of the Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor.

Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor affirmed here that the attempts to infiltrate into Kashmir from elements in the Pakistani side were correct.

“They are attempting to infiltrate before the winter season starts. But our troops are well deployed in various places to meet the challenge and keep the infiltration under check,” he said responding to a question at the Officers Training Academy here.

On Chinese intrusions into Indian territory, he pointed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement. Quoting Mr. Singh, he said that “the Prime Minister has just made a statement that there has not been any more incursions or transgressions as compared to last year. They are at the same level. So there is no cause for worry or concern. I request the media to kindly restrain and not to overplay.”

On Pakistani violations of ceasefire, he said there have been some ceasefire violations for which India had responded suitably. “I also wish to tell you wherever there are transgressions or ceasefire violations, we have a mechanism in place. We have a hotline facility on both sides. We also have the mechanism of border personnel meetings. Most of these issues are resolved. If it does not get resolved, we raise it to the diplomatic level,” he said.

Cadets pass out

Of the 157 gentlemen cadets who passed out of the Academy, close to a third have been allotted to the infantry (49). Artillery gets the next highest in number of officers (30) followed by Armoured Corps and the ASC (nine each). The cadet who won the gold medal for standing overall in order of merit, Suchi Durga Pal, a bio-tech graduate and a first generation officer from Nanital, has been allotted to Air Defence. She is one of the 30 women who passed out of the Academy at the end of 11 months of training. "Whatever I did, I did sincerely," she said, when asked on her topping the merit list.

Afghan cadets

A total of eight Afghanistan cadets also received their first stars on Saturday, at the end of their training. Nine more are undergoing training in the junior batch. “The quality of training is excellent and has helped officers in Afghanistan,” said Masud Stankzi, the Defence Attaché for Afghanistan in India. He said that many countries were training Afghan officers and said that he was pleased cadets from his country were doing well in the National Defence Academy and the Officers Training Academy in India.

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