Gen Bipin Rawat: Scope to ramp up heat on Pakistan for cross-border terror

Gen Bipin Rawat. Pic/PTI

Political initiative must go "hand-in-hand" with military operations in Jammu and Kashmir to bring peace, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said yesterday, and favoured ramping up military offensive to pile up heat on Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism in the state. "The political initiative and all the other initiatives must go simultaneously hand-in-hand and only if all of us function in synergy, we can bring lasting peace in Kashmir. It has to be a politico-military approach that we have to adopt," the Army chief said.

"When the government appointed an interlocutor (former Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma), it is with that purpose. He is the government's representative to reach out to the people of Kashmir and see what their grievances are so that those can then be addressed at a political level," he said. Asked whether there is room for ramping up pressure on Pakistan to force it to stop sending terrorists to the state, he said, "Yes, you cannot be status quoist. You have to continuously think and keep moving forward. You have to keep changing your doctrines and concept and the manner in which you operate in such areas."

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