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Kashmir a political problem: Padmanaban

Army chief General S Padmanaban, on a four-day visit to the state, reviewed the Kashmir situation with the authorities and senior army officers.

Padmanaban will visit Leh, Kargil and Drass for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

This is the first visit of Padmanaban to the state as army chief.

At a press conference in the afternoon at the heavily guarded Badami Bagh cantonment, the army chief said that the purpose of his visit was to ''rediscover Kashmir for myself''.

He has been closely associated with counter-insurgency operations, having served as the corps commander 15th corps and also as army commander northern command during the peak of militancy in the state.

He said that he met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, his cabinet ministers and state director general of police.

At his hour long meeting with the state authorities, Abdullah called for strict vigil on the border and emphasised the need for taking more stringent measures to check infiltration. He urged the army chief to take steps to instil confidence among those living near the border.

The army chief said that he had visited the line of control and remote areas and met senior army officers. He said, ''Kashmir is basically a political problem and our is only a supporting role. All organs have to work together to address the causes responsible for the situation.''

Padmanaban added, ''Nobody can put a time-frame on insurgency in the state. Insurgency has continued for many years in different parts of the world.''

On press reports that Pakistani troops were holding peaks in Drass sector in Kargil district, Padmanaban shot back, ''I will reply to that question after visiting the area.''

Padmanaban said, ''Nuclear weapons are not meant for wars to be fought. No country can ever fight a war with nuclear weapons.''

However, he said that following the nuclearisation of the sub-continent, the army has to evolve and fine-tune its tactics to face a nuclear threat that has emerged in the neighbourhood.

He, however, said that nuclearisation of the region has in no way changed the role of conventional forces.

''Things seem all right and I can see tiredness in the eyes of the people and they have understood the purposelessness of insurgency here,'' Padmanaban said.

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