Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Jan 28: Top Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) Commanders today held a high level review of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and discussed operational preparedness and co-ordination between the two major forces in case of any eventuality.
The high level inter-action between Army and IAF was held at Northern Command Headquarters at Udhampur and lasted two days (January 27 and 28).
Northern Army Commander Lt Sanjiv Chachra and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, Air Marshal SS Soman jointly chaired the meeting, which was attended by top officers of Army and Air Force.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the high level meeting between Army and Air Force top brass was aimed at further improving inter-services cooperation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Army had to take Air Force services on some occasions during anti-militancy operations as it had to track the militants in dense forests, snow bound and other inaccessible areas.
“The air operations had proved useful on a number of occasions for the Army in tracking down the militants hiding in the forest cover and other far off areas in Jammu and Kashmir,” sources said, adding both the forces decided to maintain close liaison with each other to thwart the militant designs in the State.
The meeting discussed and devised measures to further improve inter services cooperation between the two major forces, operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources said the two-days long meeting also discussed in detail the issues of synergy between Army and Air Force operations. They added that aspects of peace time operations being conducted in Jammu and Kashmir by the two services were also discussed in detail between the two Commanders of Army and IAF.
Apart from anti-militancy and anti-infiltration measures, the role of Indian Air Force in providing logistics to the troops deployed in inaccessible areas also figured in the meeting. The Army Commander lauded the services being provided by the Air Force to provide logistics to the troops in hilly, snow bound and other inaccessible areas including Ladakh region, which remained cut off by road during winters.
“The conference proved very fruitful in enhancing jointness and improving coordination of efforts of the Army and Air Force to meet the challenges of the prevailing security situation,” sources said noting that GOC-in-C Northern Command Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra and AOC-in-C Western Command Air Marshal SS Soman also had one-to-one meeting to discuss security situation and operational preparedness of the forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
It may be mentioned here that Jammu and Kashmir would go to both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2014, which were stated to be very crucial as Pakistan based militants were making all out efforts to disturb them. Further, the pullout by NATO and US troops from Afghanistan late this year was also expected to shift the focus of militants towards Jammu and Kashmir but Army maintained that it was fully prepared for any kind of situation.
Earlier in the day Air Marshal SS Soman paid tributes at Dhruva War Memorial dedicated to the martyrs of Northern Command.
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