'We reserve right to military action'

JAMMU, OCT. 31. A top Army commander today warned Pakistan that India reserved the right to take military action against its troops and terrorist groups if they continued to carry out ``hostile acts'' against the country like sabotage and infiltration.

In an unusually combative key-note address at a seminar on ``Jammu and Kashmir: the way ahead'' here, Lt. Gen. R.K. Nanavatty, GoC-in-C of Northern Command, said the ``blatant aggression'' being witnessed now in Jammu and Kashmir was not ``entirely dissimilar'' to that in August 1965, when India was compelled to undertake limited conventional operations against Pakistan in the Hajipur bulge.

``We are committed to restraint along the Line of Control and the international boundary in Jammu and Kashmir. If, however, the Pakistan Army or terrorists assisted by the Pakistan Army, continue to carry out hostile acts to include sabotage, infiltration, raids or intrusions in violation of the Shimla agreement, we reserve the right to take military action against Pakistani military and/or terrorist targets as deemed appropriate,'' the general said in what he called as a ``message for the Pakistan Army opposite Northern Command''.

``The nuclearisation of the sub-continent may have altered the situation but space still exists for limited conventional war.

Maintaining that the nation had the moral obligation to protect its sovereignty and integrity, he said the ``reclamation'' of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the northern areas, however, was quite another matter. ``It is achievable but would demand extraordinary synergy of political, diplomatic, economic, intelligence and military effort together with an uncharacteristic single-mindedness of purpose''.He said the real challenge before India today was to restore normality in Jammu and Kashmir.

- PTI

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