Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Thursday warned Pakistan against trying to take advantage of India's border row with China in eastern Ladakh, saying Islamabad could suffer "heavy losses" for any "misadventure". In an interactive session at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, Gen Rawat said also spoke about security implications of China's economic assistance to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as well as its overall military, economic and diplomatic support to Islamabad.
The Chief of Defence Staff said Pakistan could take advantage of India's border row with China, and it may create some trouble for New Delhi, adding a strategy has already been devised to deal with such a scenario. "If any threat develops around our northern borders, Pakistan could take advantage of that and create some trouble for us," he said. "Therefore, we have taken adequate precaution to ensure that any such misadventure by Pakistan is sorted and they are not able to succeed in their mission. In fact, they may suffer heavy losses should they attempt any misadventure," Gen Rawat said.
He said Pakistan has been engaged in a proxy war against India and pushing terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, adding Pakistan attempted to spread terrorism in other parts of India as well. Talking about India's overall security challenges, the Chief of Defence Staff said the country faces the most "complex threats and challenges" spanning the full spectrum of conflict from "nuclear to sub-conventional". "The proxy war unleashed by Pakistan blocked India's efforts at regional integration besides fomenting terrorism against India and exploiting our diverse faultlines ," he said.
India has been adopting a tough approach in dealing with cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. India's warplanes pounded a terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan in February last year days after 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir.
Gen Rawat said China's economic cooperation with Pakistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir along with its continued military, economic and diplomatic support requires high levels of "preparations" by India. "At the same time it poses the threat of coordinated action along the northern and western fronts which we have to consider in our defence planning," he said.
To a question on how the armed forces are dealing with coronavirus, Gen Rawat said none of the military personnel who are deployed on the frontline, flying aircraft and deployed at at sea are affected by the pandemic.
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