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No Army help for anti-Naxal operations
NEW DELHI: The armed forces, already heavily deployed in battling militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, remain steadfast in their opposition to being dragged into anti-naxal operations as well.
New Army chief General Vijay Kumar Singh says the armed forces, which are already `assisting' central paramilitary and state police forces with training and logistics, do not want to be directly involved in the battle against Naxalism.
"The Naxalite problem is a law and order problem, which is a state subject. It stems from certain issues on the ground, be it of governance, be it of administration, be it of socio-economic factors,'' said Gen Singh, who assumed command of the 1.13-million strong Army on Wednesday.
"Since it is not a secessionist movement, I think our polity is astute and wise enough to know the implications of using the Army against their own people,'' he added.
Naxalism, of course, has rapidly outstripped the insurgencies in J&K and North-East to emerge as a bigger threat to internal security in terms of violence levels.
Many more security personnel, for instance, are now being killed in Naxalism-hit states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh than in insurgency-hit J&K and North-East combined.
Government figures show that while 64 security force personnel were killed by militants in J&K in 2009, the figure in the North-East stood at 42. Ultra Left-wing extremists, in turn, killed as many as 317 security personnel last year.
The armed forces, however, say their primary task is to train for war or to counter external threats. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, who took over as the new chairman of the chiefs of staff committee on Tuesday, says the armed forces want `by and large' to be kept away from internal security duties. "It's a job which the police and paramilitary have to do,'' he said.
"If the scale (of the Maoist rebellion) becomes so big that the police and paramilitary are unable to handle it, then only will the government decide if the armed forces are to be involved,'' he added.
IAF does deploy helicopters, transport aircraft and spy drones to help paramilitary forces during anti-naxal operations but their use has been largely restricted to logistical, casualty evacuation and surveillance duties.
The IAF chief has already made it clear that use of "offensive airpower'' in internal security duties is not a viable option since it could lead to heavy "collateral damage'' in terms of innocent civilians being killed on the ground.
No Army help for anti-Naxal operations: Chief General V K Singh - India - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The armed forces, already heavily deployed in battling militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, remain steadfast in their opposition to being dragged into anti-naxal operations as well.
New Army chief General Vijay Kumar Singh says the armed forces, which are already `assisting' central paramilitary and state police forces with training and logistics, do not want to be directly involved in the battle against Naxalism.
"The Naxalite problem is a law and order problem, which is a state subject. It stems from certain issues on the ground, be it of governance, be it of administration, be it of socio-economic factors,'' said Gen Singh, who assumed command of the 1.13-million strong Army on Wednesday.
"Since it is not a secessionist movement, I think our polity is astute and wise enough to know the implications of using the Army against their own people,'' he added.
Naxalism, of course, has rapidly outstripped the insurgencies in J&K and North-East to emerge as a bigger threat to internal security in terms of violence levels.
Many more security personnel, for instance, are now being killed in Naxalism-hit states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh than in insurgency-hit J&K and North-East combined.
Government figures show that while 64 security force personnel were killed by militants in J&K in 2009, the figure in the North-East stood at 42. Ultra Left-wing extremists, in turn, killed as many as 317 security personnel last year.
The armed forces, however, say their primary task is to train for war or to counter external threats. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, who took over as the new chairman of the chiefs of staff committee on Tuesday, says the armed forces want `by and large' to be kept away from internal security duties. "It's a job which the police and paramilitary have to do,'' he said.
"If the scale (of the Maoist rebellion) becomes so big that the police and paramilitary are unable to handle it, then only will the government decide if the armed forces are to be involved,'' he added.
IAF does deploy helicopters, transport aircraft and spy drones to help paramilitary forces during anti-naxal operations but their use has been largely restricted to logistical, casualty evacuation and surveillance duties.
The IAF chief has already made it clear that use of "offensive airpower'' in internal security duties is not a viable option since it could lead to heavy "collateral damage'' in terms of innocent civilians being killed on the ground.
No Army help for anti-Naxal operations: Chief General V K Singh - India - The Times of India
