We shall retaliate, says Army chief

New Delhi: On a day when India and Pakistan are scheduled to hold a flag meeting, Army chief General Bikram Singh on Monday talked tough saying India reserved the right to retaliate against Pakistan atrocities across the LoC, but at a “time and place of our choice”.
Addressing presspersons, the General said India will not be passive in the face of aggression by Pakistan and described the beheading of an Indian jawan as “gruesome, unacceptable and most unpardonable.”
He described the January 6 attack by Pakistan as pre-planned. 
Gen Bikram Singh is also understood to have told his border commanders to be tough and aggressive.
The General’s no-nonsense message came hours before Pakistan agreed to a flag meeting at Chakan-Da-Bagh in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir to defuse tension along the volatile LoC.At the flag meeting, the Indian side is expected to strongly protest the Pakistani intrusion and the beheading of a soldier and demand the return of the severed head believed to have been carried by Pakistani army regulars after the killing of two soldiers on January 8.
"Brigade Commanders' flag meeting is being held on Monday at Chakan-Da-Bagh LoC point in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir at noon," Public Relation Officer (PRO), Defence, Col RK Palta said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan may well be gearing up for yet another onslaught on Indian forces deployed along the Line of Control, only this time the attack may be a lot more lethal and severe than the one seen recently in which the body of one Army soldier was badly mutilated.
Interestingly, the fresh spate of attacks may again happen in the Poonch sector, from where the previous incident was reported.
The details are in a fresh threat assessment report that intelligence agencies gave the government on Saturday, which has been accessed by this newspaper.
After a detailed discussion on recent killings of Indian soldiers at Thursday’s meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, a number of intelligence and security agencies were tasked to pool resources and keep a close watch on what the Pakistan Army and the ISI were up to.
The Cabinet Committee on Security was also clearly told that the Poonch killings were carried out by Pakistan Army regulars and not any rogue outfit.
Highly-placed government sources revealed that the fresh assessment is based on “specific human intelligence from sources within Pakistan’s security establishment”.
Thus, taking a serious note of the developments, Indian troops, particularly in Poonch region, were mobilised further by late Saturday night.
The intelligence alert warns that Indian forces along the LoC and the International Border should not lower their guard.
Pak waves peace flag, but pounds 5 posts at Poonch 
Pakistan on Sunday accepted India’s repeated requests to hold a flag meeting of senior commanders to defuse the tension along the Line of Control. A brigadier-level flag meeting will be held on Monday at Chakkanda-Bagh, the crossing point in the Poonch-Rawlakote corridor, not too far from where the two armies have exchanged moderate to heavy firing in the past one week.
Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire yet again, firing at five Indian posts in the Poonch sector on Sund-ay evening, hours after Islamabad agreed to the flag meeting. The fresh firing in the Nangitikri forward area along the LoC came around 4.30 pm, after heavy overni-ght firing in Krishnagati, also in Poonch. Earlier, the Army said on Sunday that Pakistani troops had violated the November 2003 ceasefire along the LoC six times in the past 48 hours.
Sources said that at Monday’s flag meeting, the Army would strongly protest to its Pakistani counterparts such violations, particularly the gruesome killing of two of its soldiers in the Mendhar sector on January 8.
It will also ask Pakistan to trace the head of one of the slain soldiers beheaded during the January 8 intrusion and return it.