: Pakistan cannot get even an inch of Kashmiri land, said Major General Dhruv C. Katoch, a war veteran and former director of Centre for Land Warfare Studies, here on Sunday. In 1965, when India won the war, Pakistan’s hope of getting Kashmir was gone, he added speaking from experience and research.
Maj. Katoch was speaking at a seminar organised in the city on 1965 and 1971 wars and how they shaped India’s security architecture. “Pakistan can never win a war against India. The neighbouring country realised this way back in 1965,” he said. Pakistan has been resorting to proxy war with India ever since its defeat in the 1971 war. The country which lost face in two wars is left with just terrorism to lash out against India.
War veterans Group Captain Dilipkumar Dass, Wing Commander Farokh Jehangir Mehta, Wing Commander Rajendra Singh Wahir, Captain Nagulapalli Narsing Raoji, Brigadier Madhurantakam Ravindranath, Rea Admiral Keki Pestonji, Lt Col. Virendra Kumar Kalia, and Ari Commodre Par Kumarji participated in the seminar. They had fought in the wars.
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The speakers at the seminar said that India should not hold talks with Pakistan as the country has been indulging in cross-border terrorism. Major. Katoch said, however, that the intelligence networks should provide advance inputs on Pakistan’s designs. “There is a need to strengthen the network,” he said adding that since Independence India has been neglecting its arms production. Former union home secretary K. Padmanabhaiah, who presided over the seminar, said that it was eight and not two wars that Pakistan imposed on us. The wars included proxy wars like militancy in Punjab, unrest in Kashmir and importing terror.
Organizer weekly’s editor Prafulla Ketkar said that India is failing in countering Pakistan’s propaganda on various issues. He questioned the rationality behind discussing Kashmir issue with Pakistan, when the land is legally part of India.