Army chief Bipin Rawat says any misadventure by Pakistan will be ‘repelled with punitive response’

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday sent out a warning to Pakistan that any “misadventure will be repelled with a punitive response”, The Indian Express reported. Rawat, while addressing a seminar to mark the 20th year of the Kargil conflict, said the Indian forces and the country had achieved a “resounding victory” in the war despite arduous terrain, ANI reported.

“Pakistan Army time and again resorts to misadventure either through flawed proxy wars and state-sponsored terror or intrusions,” he said. “Indian Army stands resolute to defend our territory. Let there be no doubt that any misadventure will be repelled with a punitive response.”

The Army chief said future conflicts will be more violent and unpredictable, but the “importance of the human factor will remain undiminished”, according to ANI. “Our soldiers are and will remain our primary assets,” he said. “Battlefield will be severely contested and seamlessly connected. In the future, even conventional conflicts are likely to have a large asymmetric component leading to now what is being termed ‘hybrid war’. Technology has become key driver of future wars.”

‘No incursion by Chinese troops in Demchok sector’

Rawat denied the movement of Chinese troops in Demchok in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. “Chinese come and patrol their perceived Line of Actual Control, which we try and prevent them,” he said. “We try and attempt to reach out to our Line of Actual Control which has been given to us.”

Rawat’s statement comes amid reports of Chinese soldiers crossing the Line of Actual Control last week after some Tibetans hoisted Tibetan flags on the occasion of Dalai Lama’s birthday on July 6. “Celebrations were going on our side by our Tibetans in the Demchok sector,” ANI quoted Rawat as saying. “Based on that, some Chinese also came to see what was happening. But there has been no intrusions. Everything is normal.”