India can go beyond Balakot air strikes, warns Army Chief Bipin Rawat

CHENNAI: The terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot has been reactivated, Chief of Army Staff Bipin Rawat said on Monday.

"Balakot has been reactivated by Pakistan very recently. This shows that Balakot has been affected, it had been damaged and destroyed and that is why people have got away from there and now it has been reactivated.

It highlights some action was taken by the Indian Air Force at Balakot and now they have got the people back there," General Rawat said.

Rawat, who was in Chennai to inaugurate the Young Leaders Training Wing at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai, stated that 500 terrorists were waiting to cross the border.

Defending the February 26 surgical strike by the Indian Air force on alleged terror camps in Pakistan's Balakot, the Army General said, "Pakistan violates ceasefire to push terrorists into our territory.

We know how to deal with ceasefire violations. Our troops know how to position themselves and take action. We are alert and will ensure that maximum infiltration bids are foiled."

"We will keep the enemy guessing and this time. Why repeat (Balakot). We may go beyond that," Rawat added.

Meanwhile, rejecting that there was a clampdown in Kashmir, Bipin Rawat claimed that everything was normal in Kashmir, "Shops remain open. Only the shutters are down but shops are functioning. Nobody is starving. Life is normal."

The Army General alleged that terrorists were trying to create a facade of a lockdown and that all restrictions would be eased gradually.

"There is a communication breakdown between terrorists in the Kashmir Valley and their handlers in Pakistan but there is no communication breakdown between people to people", he said.

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