The Army on Monday said it has received intelligence inputs about a possible terrorist attack in Southern and peninsular India, ANI reported. Southern Army Commander Lieutenant General SK Saini said some abandoned boats have also been recovered at Sir Creek area off the Gujarat coast.

“We have got many inputs that there may be a terrorist attack in the southern part of India and peninsular India,” Saini told reporters in Pune.

He said the Army has undertaken “measures for capacity building and capability development” due to the heightened threat in the region. “We are taking precautions to ensure that the designs of inimical elements or the terrorists are thwarted,” Saini was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Saini said the Centre’s move to abrogate Jammu and Kashmir’s special status has got both internal and external dimensions, PTI reported. “In the case of J&K, the external dimension is much more pronounced than the internal dimension,” Saini said. “We have a very clear cut policy based on which we have been resolving insurgencies. The government takes a comprehensive view of every conflict and undertakes political, economic, social and diplomatic measure to resolve it. Army’s role is to create conducive conditions for such initiatives of the government.” He added that the Army was fully equipped to face any challenge.

On September 4, Lieutenant General KJS Dhillon had said the launch pads along the Line of Control were active and full of terrorists who were being facilitated by the Pakistan Army day and night to infiltrate into the state. He added that they caught two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists during one such attempt.

Last month, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had claimed that Pakistan was likely to instigate violence in Jammu and Kashmir to internationalise the Kashmir dispute. The chiefs of all the three wings of the armed forces have said over the past month that they were completely prepared to thwart any attempts at terrorism.

There has been rising hostilities between the India and Pakistan since New Delhi revoked the state’s special status. Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India for Kashmir since Independence, has not taken this move well.

Last month, the Gujarat Police had beefed up security across all ports in Kutch district after intelligence agencies shared inputs about the possibility of Pakistan-trained commandos entering India through the sea route. Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala were put on high before that following an intelligence input that six Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had settled in Coimbatore. The terrorists were suspected to have entered Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka via sea.

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