Pak-Taliban truce not direct threat to India: Thamburaj

New Delhi, Feb 21 (PTI) A day after India's Defence
Minister A K Antony said that the truce between Pakistan and
Taliban has added to India's "worries" over the security
scenario in the region, Army Vice Chief Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj
was of the view that it was not a "direct threat" to India.

"Taliban is an organisation, which generally has its
influence in Western Pakistan and Afghanistan and there is no
known influence of Taliban inside India. So, there is no
direct threat as of now," Thamburaj told reporters here
Saturday.

He said that if there was any threat in the future from
Taliban, the Army was prepared to tackle it.

"Whatever are the threats which may manifest itself in the
future, Indian Army is totally prepared for all different
scopes of warfare," Thamburaj said.

Antony had yesterday said the truce between Pakistan and
Taliban has added to India's "worries" over the security
scenario in the region.

He said that with the Pakistan Army under pressure on its
western frontier, it was in a "dilemma" over its troops
deployed along Indian border after the Mumbai terror attacks.

"After 26/11, three to four of their brigades have
shifted from their western border to Indian border. With the
pressure on them on the western side, they are in a dilemma as
what to do," he said.

He said that the Pakistan Army had deployed 22 brigades
on its western border in the area of Swat, Baloochistan and
other places.

Thamburaj said the Pakistani troops on the Indian border
were in a "defensive kind of deployment" and the Army did not
visualise any "major problem" with their presence.

When asked about the expected rise in infiltration in
summers in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "Infiltration has come
down in Kashmir in the last couple of years after the fence is
in place and we have put more troops on the frontline in
counter infiltration role."

He said that people's waning support for terrorists has
also led to a change in the environment in the state.

"The environment in Kashmir has also undergone a major
change. People have come up and proved that they are for peace
with their participation in the assembly elections in the
srate and there was hardly any terrorist activity in the last
few months. We feel that as long as the people are not
supporting them, terrorist activities are on the wane,"
Thamburaj said. PTI AJD
SAK
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