Speaking to reporters at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Indian troops’ Budgam landing, Air Officer Commanding in Chief (AOC-in-C) of Western Air Command, Air Marshal Amit Dev, said that in years to come to India will have the whole of Kashmir.
“We don’t have a plan as of now but it will happen one day as the people of Kashmir from other side of the border are not being treated fairly”, the Air Officer Commanding in Chief said in response to a query related to plans aimed at taking over PoK.
“…All the activities which were carried out by the Indian Air Force and the Army (on October 27, 1947) resulted in ensuring the freedom of this part of Kashmir. I am sure that someday, the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will also join this part of Kashmir and we will have the whole of Kashmir in years to come,” he said.
“(The whole of) Kashmir is one, a nation is one. People on both sides have common attachments. Today or tomorrow, history is witness, that nations come together. We do not have a plan at the moment, but, God willing, it will always be there because people in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir are not being treated very fairly by the Pakistanis,” he said.
Indian troops had landed in Kashmir on October 27, 1947 as the then Maharaja Hari Singh signed an instrument of accession with India following the Pakistani tribal raids.
The AOC-in-C of the Western Air Command said the IAF faces many challenges, but the basic one is technology.
The rate of change of technology is so fast in the world today that we have to keep pace with that. If any nation which is to grow economically has to have a strong military, we must fulfil our obligation to the nation in the years to come…and we are always ready for the challenge, he said.
Asked about drone attacks, the Air Marshal said that drone attacks are very small and can cause very little damage but the counter equipment has been prepared for the same which was already deployed here. “The deployment has been further extended to different places and more equipment has been procured”, he said.
He maintained that the drone threat is a “very little challenge and we will be able to deal with that when such a challenge comes.”