Intruders Pak soldiers, not militants: General -'we'll not be using kid gloves'.
Chindu Sreedharan in Srinagar
After maintaining for 20 days that the infiltrators in the Kargil-Drass-Batalik area were "militants supported by the Pakistani army", the army on Saturday revealed that they were regular Pakistani troops.
"They are not what has been termed as militants so far," said Lieutenant General H M Khanna, GoC-in-C, Northern Command, in a belligerent press briefing in Srinagar, "This is the Pakistani regular army, aided and supported by highly trained and highly paid mercenaries from Afghanistan of Taliban."
The troops, it appears, belong to Pakistan's Fourth Northern Light Infantry, which is positioned on the other side of the border in the area.
He said the situation in Kargil and Drass was 'near-warlike'. When pressed to clarify, he admitted, "In Kargil-Drass, it is war."
The presence of Pakistani troops would, thus, mean that part of the Line of Control in the area has been pushed into Indian territory.
"We are fighting regular troops," the general said, "We will not use kid gloves." .....
rediff.com
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