New Delhi: Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat asserted that any possible terrorist activity flowing out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and finding its way into India will be firmly dealt with.
Gen Rawat said India was anticipating a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan but the timelines of the latest developments have surprised it, noting that the outfit has not changed over the past 20 years.
He, along with Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral John Aquilino, was speaking at an interactive session organized by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
The Chief of Defense Staff said India is committed to ensuring a terrorist-free environment in the region.
“As far as Afghanistan is concerned, we will make sure that any activity likely to flow out of Afghanistan and then find its way into India will be dealt with in the manner in which we have been dealing with terrorism in our country,” Gen Rawat said.
Gen Rawat said New Delhi was concerned about the possibility of terrorist activities from Afghanistan impacting India and contingency plans were put into place to deal with such a challenge.
“From India’s perspective, we were anticipating a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. We were concerned about how the terrorist activities from Afghanistan could overflow into India,” he said.
“And to that extent, our contingency planning had been ongoing and we are prepared for it. Yes, the timelines certainly surprised us. We were anticipating this thing happening maybe a couple of months down the line,” he added.
His comments came in the backdrop of mounting concerns over the possibility of rise in activities of various terror groups including the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.