"They want to give a message that peace is still fragile": Lt Gen DP Pandey (Retd) on rise in terror attacks in J-K

Sep 01, 2024

New Delhi [India], September 1 : Lieutenant General DP Pandey (Retd), who served as Chinar Corps Commander in Kashmir and Commandant of Army War College, referred to the rise in terror attacks in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and said that the terrorists want to give a message that peace is still fragile and show that they would operate at will.
On being asked whether the targets of the terrorists are security personnel or civilians, Lt General Pandey, in an exclusive interview with ANI, said that the target is of opportunities and to discredit the present system of governance wherein the administration claims the restoration of peace.
"I think they don't want impact internationally. They possibly want to discredit the present system of governance or government or the claims of security agencies that peace is there. They want to tell a message that the peace is still fragile. We are here, and we will operate at will. So the targeting is of not either security forces or people but is a target of opportunities. If I can come from the upper reaches and come to a place and carry out a strike, it may be a security force that is unaware. Hit and I can escape. I will hit the security forces or I'll hit a bus. Somewhere, I will work it out in a manner that neither I should get caught nor I should create a sensationalism which is so beyond that the masters who are controlling us across are helmed, controlled or pushed into the boundaries of FATF and they are brought into certain degree of spotlight, so maintain that temperature in a manner," Lt General Pandey said while speaking to ANI.
Lt General Pandey further highlighted the frequency of the strikes, pointing out that they are carried out either to announce their presence or to tell that the security system is not working well enough.
"You don't see a spate of activity you see these strikes happening over a period of time it happened today; it will happen after about two months or three months, maybe six weeks. When the memory of this incident fades away and as the area is too large so an incident will take place somewhere in Rajouri thereafter sometime it will take place in Kushahar they're distinctly far apart to carry a memory for the population that what is happening to them but it announces their survival, arrival, presence and it also tells us that your security system is not working good enough," he said.
On the support received by the terrorists, General Pandey said that there are no local leaders now in the UT where the strikers are taking instructions.
"Instructions, orders, rest everything can be bought and created. It can come from anywhere but the control of orders has to be from some place it is not local. There are no local leaders there are no local effort which is surviving today in which they can calibrate control operations there's no militant group. There are local terrorists but there is no leadership per se today. They have been killed eliminated put in prison is that it or have they just disappeared," he said.