All nonsense, says Air Chief on soldier abandoning allegation

BANGALORE: Dismissing as "nonsense" allegation that IAF personnel abandoned an injured policeman in a chopper, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne today said there should be end to "sniping" at each other by security agencies in Naxal areas as it would affect operations there.

"The impression that they abandoned, they ran away, I think this is all nonsense," Browne said at his Aero India press conference.

The IAF Chief expressed surprise at the leakage of a letter written by Home Secretary R K Singh in which he has objected to the conduct of Air Force personnel and advised the security agencies operating in naxal-affected to work together as a team.

He suggested that the IAF team on the chopper had left the chopper and the injured police man as they wanted to avoid being taken hostage in the area infested with Maoists.

The IAF chief also warned that "it (anti-Naxal operations) is going to be a long haul and it is not about easy solutions. If we keep sniping like this, the same thing happened in the (Kashmir) Valley and is still happening there where they (forces inimical to the country's interest) want to create divisions between security forces and security agencies.

"If we are not careful, in the Maoist region same thing will happen and they will be very happy to have divisions within security agencies.

"I do not think this is the way to function in a situation like this," he said.

Asked if his comments were directed at the Home Secretary, the Air Chief said it was for "all the agencies" working there.

He said the "lesson that we all have to draw is that we all to work together as a team in one direction instead of finding faults in one incident."