New Delhi:
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that the armed forces are "proportio6nately" retaliating to Pakistani actions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and effectively containing cross-border infiltration.
She also said there was "no rethinking as of now" on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which has been in force in Jammu and Kashmir and several insurgency-hit states in the Northeast.
The act gives the security forces special rights and immunity in carrying out various operations in disturbed areas. There has been a long-standing demand from various quarters in J-K and the Northeast to withdraw it.
On the situation at the, LOC Sitharaman said, “We are able to contain the infiltrators and are able to retaliate (to Pakistani actions). It is not an exaggeration to say that we are not allowing them to come in. We are eliminating them at the border and are not letting them come in.”
She, however, added that it would be not right to say that no one manages to infiltrate. The LoC has witnessed a surge in ceasefire violations since last year. According to official figures, 860 incidents of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops were reported in 2017 as against 221 the year before.
