Violations of understanding by Pakistan will be responded fiercely: Lt Gen Ghai

New Delhi: Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai on Sunday said India will fiercely respond to any violation of the ceasefire understanding by Pakistan, “tonight, subsequently or later”.
Notably, just hours after the understanding on Saturday, Pakistan vilated it by resorting to heavy firing along the Western border.
Addressing a press conference here, Lt Gen Ghai said, “Today, we have sent another hotline message to my Pakistani counterpart highlighting these violations on the understanding between the two DGMOs on May 10 and our clear and firm intent to respond to these fiercely”.
“If repeated tonight, subsequently or later in this regard, the Army chief has earlier today granted full authority to our army commanders for counteractions in the kinetic domain in case of any violation by Pakistan,” Lt Gen Ghai said,
Army Chief Upendra Dwivedi gave full authority to the commanders of the Western borders during a security review meeting.
Giving details about communication between the two DGMOs, Lt Gen Ghai said, “On the 10th of May in the morning, I received a message on hotline from my Pakistani counterpart seeking willingness to communicate. Since our initial aim was to strike at terror camps and all our actions in the subsequent days were in response to the intrusions and violations by Pakistan Air Force and its Army, I decided I would speak with my counterpart”.
He said, that his communication with the Pak DGMO was conducted at 1535 hrs yesterday and resulted in cessation of cross border firing and air intrusions by either side with effect from 1700 hrs, May 10, after he (the Pak DGMO) proposed that “we cease hostilities”.
“We also decided to further speak on May 12 at 1200 hrs to discuss the modalities that would enable the longevity of this understanding. However, disappointingly it took only a couple of hours for the Pakistan Army to violate these arrangements by cross border and across the LoC firing followed by drone intrusions through last night and the early hours of today morning,” he said.
The officer said all violations were responded to robustly.
UNI