Indian Army Chief General V.K. Singh has said cross-border incursions had come down and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir appeared “better” now, but he put the onus of making the situation “even better” on the state government.
Mr Singh said that infiltration attempts from across the border with Pakistan were still there, but “it has come down significantly” after border fencing and other devices were put up on the Line of Control (LoC) — that divides Jammu and Kashmir between the two countries. “Large numbers of people get killed while infiltrating. Some, who have managed to come inside, we get after them. Situation as of now appears to be reasonably better than what it was, let us say, four to five or six months back,” he told All India Radio in an interview with senior journalist Kalyani Shankar.
He said if the state government handled the situation “on the economic, on the social, on the governance well, then things will start looking even much better”. “After all, it is the people who make a difference. So, if people are happy, people are satisfied, they have got employment, they have got food, they have the faith in the government of the day, then you will find they will give information of anybody who is creating trouble or trying to disrupt the harmony in the state. “So, I think the situation will improve. And we are already seeing the signs where things seem to be.”