Defence Minister AK Antony on Monday said that the armed forces have been given a free hand to deal with any situation on the loC as the Pakistan Army continues to resort to ceasefire violations after killing five Indian soldiers in a cross border raid in Poonch last week.
Asked to spell out the Defence Ministry’s strategy and his directive to the army in wake of the raid and ambush by Pakistan Army and unabated ceasefire violations since Tuesday last week, Antony said, “Armed forces have the freedom to respond adequately.”
In his interaction with the media, Antony refrained from fielding any query on two statements issued by his ministry in Parliament regarding the killings leading to furore in both the Houses last week.
Mediapersons repeatedly asked him about the mystery behind his controversial statement in Parliament giving clean chit to Pakistan Army, but the Minister said he cannot reply outside the House as Monsoon Session is on. He made the statements in Parliament and any elaboration here will have a bearing on the session, the Minister said.
When asked about reports that the five jawans, who were killed by the Pakistani commandos, donned sub standard bullet proof jackets, Antony refused to reply taking the plea about honouring Parliamentary norms.
Reports indicated that the jawans were outnumbered and fell to sustained firing from automatic weapons fitted with silencers and their allegedly inferior bullet proof jackets could not withstand the bullet impact.
Moreover, there were some lacunae in the standard operating procedures while carrying out area domination patrols and the jawans were therefore ambushed. The procedures were modified in January when Pakistani commandos entered Poonch sector on January eight and beheaded an Indian soldier and killed another one.