"Concerned over Pakistan Army, ISI presence in Bangladesh": Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi

New Delhi [India], February 19 (ANI): India Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi stated that he was concerned about the presence of Pakistan Army and ISI officials in Bangladesh areas close to India’s chicken’s neck area

Speaking to ANI in an exclusive interview, General Dwivedi said that they must make sure that those anti-India elements are not able to use that soil to send terrorists to India.

Recently, the Pakistan army and ISI officials visited very sensitive areas near the Indian border, near the chicken’s neck in Bangladesh. When asked if he was concerned about this, the COAS replied in the affirmative.

“I had used the word epicentre of terrorism for a particular country (Pakistan). Now those countrymen, if they go to any other place and they happen to be our neighbor, as far as I am concerned, I should be concerned about it. That they should not be able to use that soil to send terrorists to India. That is as far as that is concerned,” General Dwivedi said.

General Dwivedi said that relations with the administration can be defined only if there is an elected government.

“As far as the second setup is concerned that how is the administration, my stance is that when we have elected government, then we can say how should be our relationship,” he told ANI.

Dwivedi said that the military relationship, however, is very strong with Bangladesh.

“But so the military relationship is concerned is very strong. And we are able to exchange notes whenever we want. And that's what we have been doing,” he said.

When General Dwivedi was asked if Pakistan has yet understood that Kashmir is part of Indian territory, Dwivedi humorously gave the example of the movie Guide, in which a madman says, ‘I won’t eat until it rains’.

“See, they are stuck in their own words. There is a movie of Dev Anand Ji, I think Narayan Ji has written this book. Do you remember when Devanand Ji became a sadhu in the last? A madman went and announced that he will not have food until it rained. Now Pakistan Army once said that we have to do this. Now they don't have a way out of it. So they will continue to go for it, look, Kashmir, this is point number one. The second thing is, if you read the book Revenge of Geography, written by Robert Kaplan, both sides of the Indus, can they be one? That's a big question you have to see,” he said. 

Dwivedi further said that Pakistan’s agenda is not limited to Kashmir only, and they are only fueling the anti-India stance.

“So, as far as they are concerned, the idea of India is their major criticality. It's not limited to Kashmir only. So to keep Pakistan together, you have to have one common agenda which can keep you together. Is the language the same? Are the people the same? What is the same? Only anti-India stance. So therefore, Kashmir, they will keep hyping up at every point of time,” he said. (ANI)