Army briefs its former chiefs about security challenges

NEW DELHI: The Army has briefed its former chiefs about the overall security challenges facing the country, including on the Dokalam standoff, and the situation along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The former chiefs were also apprised of the 73-day-long Dokalam standoff with China and the surgical strikes against terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) last year, official sources said.

The former chiefs were briefed by the incumbent Gen. Bipin Rawat at a three-day biennial Chiefs' Conclave, which will conclude tomorrow.

Eight former army chiefs including Generals (retd) V P Malik, Deepak Kapoor, S F Rodrigues, J J Singh, V N Sharma, Vikram Singh and Dalbir Singh Suhag attended the conclave.

They were also told about steps being taken to enhance the combat capability of the force as also structural reform initiatives.

Various issues relating to human resource policy of the force were also discussed, sources said.

The Army chief had on Wednesday said the country should be prepared for a two-front war, noting that China had started "flexing its muscles" and there seemed no scope for any reconciliation with Pakistan.

"As far as northern adversary is concerned, the flexing of muscle has started. The salami slicing, taking over territory in a very gradual manner, testing our limits of threshold is something we have to be wary about and remain prepared for situations emerging which could gradually emerge into conflict," he had said.

In military parlance salami slicing denotes divide and conquer process of threats and alliances used to overcome opposition.