Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh said that Indian Navy is fully prepared to thwart any “underwater wing” attacks of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019
“We have received an intelligence that an underwater wing of Jaish-e-Mohammed is training people to carry out attacks from water, but we are fully prepared and are keeping close vigil. We would like to assure people that we will thwart any such attempt, ”he said while answering a question on the changing tactics of terrorist outfits and the India Navy’s response to it.
All stakeholders in coastal security are ensuring that there is no intrusion from the sea, he added.
Admiral Singh said after the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai in 2008, coastal security construct was put in place and the Navy is overall in-charge of maritime security. “Indian Navy along with the Coast Guard, Maritime police, the state government and other stakeholders are making sure that there will not be any intrusion from the sea,” he said.
Referring to intelligence inputs on six Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who reportedly infiltrated into India via Sri Lanka, Admiral Singh said, “We have got input that they had entered and that some of them have been arrested. They are being interrogated.”
Asked how India was countering the increased presence of China in the Indian Ocean Region, he said, “I will not use the word counter. We are watching the progress. The Chinese want to become a global power, so they will come into Indian Ocean Region. But we are watching them. There should be nothing against our national interest, otherwise we will have to act.”
The Navy chief was in Pune to deliver a lecture on ‘Indian Ocean – Changing Dynamic – Maritime Security Imperatives for India’ as part of the series held in the memory of former Army General BC Joshi.
The lecture was organised at Dhanwantari Hall of the Armed Forces Medical College and was attended by Southern Army Commander Lt Gen SK Saini and a large number of serving officers of the Armed Forces and veterans.
In 1995, Headquarters Southern Command and the University of Pune jointly instituted an annual lecture series to honour the memory of former Army General BC Joshi in recognition of his contribution to higher education and furthering University-Armed Forces interaction programme. The lecture is organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University.