INS Shivalik and RSS Tenacious lead India-Singapore naval exercises
The 31st edition of the Singapore India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) concluded recently, strengthening naval ties and operational coordination between the two countries.
The Pulwama attack was perpetrated by extremists, “aided by a State” that seeks to destabilise India, Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said on Tuesday.
Addressing a gathering of global experts from defence sector and diplomats at the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue, Lanba said the region had witnessed multiple forms of terrorism in recent years and few countries in this part of the world had been spared.
The global nature that terrorism has acquired in recent times has further enhanced the scope of this threat, he said.
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India, however, faces a “far more serious” version of this “State-sponsored” terrorism, the Navy chief said.
“We recently had the extremist attack in Jammu and Kashmir about three weeks ago. This violence was perpetrated by extremists aided and abetted by a State that seeks to destabilise India,” the Navy chief said.
“We also have reports of terrorists being trained to carry out operations in various modus operandi, including through the medium of the sea,” he added.
Earlier on February 14, over 44 CRPF personnel were killed and several injured in one of the deadliest terror strikes in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama when a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden vehicle near their bus in the district.
On February 20, four soldiers, including an officer, and a policeman were killed in an encounter with terrorists in Pulwama.
The attacks escalated tensions between India and Pakistan with India resorting to “non-military pre-emptive” airstrikes targeting the JeM training camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province early on February 26.
(With PTI inputs)
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