Military equipment from Afghanistan being seized in Kashmir: Army Chief
There has been a rise in incidents of military equipment from Afghanistan being seized in Kashmir, Army Chief General MM Naravane has said, amid fears of a spillover of fighters into India as the Taliban surged back to power in the war-torn country.
“When the previous Taliban regime was there in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, we did have a little spillover. We had captured or killed Afghan terrorists (in Kashmir) also,” Naravane said during the Raisina Dialogue, a video of which was released Thursday.
The Army chief said while there has been no spill over of manpower “so far” this time, “there is definitely a movement in that direction”.
“There is definitely an increase in the number of weapons and other equipment, especially night-vision devices that we are capturing or unearthing, which definitely have come from Afghanistan,” Naravane said.
“That is a major cause of concern.”
Responding to a question on ongoing war in Ukraine, Naravane said it has forced a rethink of certain military assumptions.
“First assumption was that the conventional wars are passe,” he said, adding it had also been thought previously that economically dependent countries do not go to war.
On another ‘assumption’ that all wars now will be of a short duration and will stop when the international community intervenes, he said: “We are already in the third month (of Ukraine war).”
The fundamental point, the Army chief said, is wars and conflict “will happen”.
