Author: PTI
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 3, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/213209/Army-Chief-warns-of-26/11-type-attacks.html
Army Chief Deepak Kapoor on Tuesday warned
that 26/11-type Mumbai terror attacks were a possibility and that India has
to take all steps to counter such strikes.
"We have to take all steps to prevent
any Mumbai-type attacks. We cannot rule out apprehensions of such possibilities,"
Kapoor told reporters here on the sidelines of an Army function.
To a question if there were any terror alerts
in the recent times, he said the South Asian region is infested with terror
groups. Be it India, Afghanistan or Pakistan, "we have to collectively
battle such threats."
Noting that Pakistan too had come under terror
attacks in recent times, he said both Defence Minister AK Antony and Home
Minister P Chidambaram had asked us to be cautious against such threats.
To allegations from Pakistan Army that they
have seized some Indian-made weapons from terrorists involved in recent attacks,
the Army chief said India had no intention of causing trouble inside Pakistan
and that it did not support any terror group in the region.
"We want Pakistan to be stable and peaceful,"
he said.
On the naxal menace, Kapoor said the Army
would continue to train paramilitary forces to fight against the naxals and
it would be an ongoing process.
"The battle against naxals will not be
over in one day. To eradicate naxalism, it is going to take time. It is going
to be a long drawn battle," he said, giving examples of counter- insurgency
operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast which had gone on for decades.
He said providing strategy and equipment to
paramilitary forces in the fight against naxals would be a futuristic option.
