In his first press conference of the year, General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of Army Staff, said that the Indian Army was ready and prepared to march into Pakistan during Operation Sindoor if the neighbouring nation "made any mistake," NDTV reported.
What did General Upendra Dwivedi say?
Speaking to reporters, General Dwivedi said that Operation Sindoor is still ongoing. The Indian armed forces launched the military operation following the attack on tourists in Pahalgam, after which several terror camps in Pakistan were destroyed by the Indian Air Force. General Dwivedi also warned Pakistan that any "future misadventure" will be "dealt with effectively."
The Chief of Army Staff also said that the Army was ready to launch ground operations if Pakistan tended to do something. Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7, against terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's associate organisation, The Resistance Front. The operation was successful in eliminating over a hundred terrorists.
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General Dwivedi on Operation Sindoor
General Dwivedi said that Operation Sindoor was "the best example of tri-service synergy under a clear-cut political directive and full freedom to act or respond," NDTV reported.
He said, "Operation Sindoor was conceptualised and executed with precision. Through 22 minutes of initiation on May 7 and an orchestration that lasted 88 hours up to May 10, the operation reset strategic assumptions by striking deep, dismantling terror infrastructure, and puncturing the longstanding nuclear rhetoric."
General Dwivedi added, "This time, the action we took, especially the kind of firing that took place in Jammu and Kashmir, and the way we addressed it, and how we eliminated approximately 100 of their people - all that action was taken because we expanded the conventional space. In those 88 hours, you saw that the army's mobilisation to expand the conventional space was such that if Pakistan made any mistake, we were fully prepared to launch ground operations."
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The Army chief said that the forces have kept the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and along the western front firmly under control, though it remains sensitive, ever since the ceasefire with Pakistan was announced. He said, "In 2025, 31 terrorists were eliminated, of which 65 per cent were of Pakistani origin, including the three perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack neutralised in Operation Mahadev." The General noted that the number of active local terrorists is now in single digits.
