Allegation that IAF men abandoned policeman is nonsense: Air Force Chief NAK Browne

BANGALORE: Air Force Chief NAK Browne today rejected as "nonsense" the allegation that IAF crew and personnel abandoned an injured policeman in a crippled chopper during an anti-Naxal operation and said "sniping" at each other by security agencies should stop.

"The impression that they abandoned, they ran away, I think this is all nonsense," he said at a press conference during the Aero India exhibition here. He suggested that the IAF team on the chopper had left the chopper and the injured policeman as they wanted to avoid being taken hostage in the area infested with Maoists.

Expressing surprise at the leakage of a letter in which Home Secretary R K Singh had objected to the conduct of Air Force personnel, the IAF chief said, "the lesson that we all have to draw is that we all have to work together as a team in one direction instead of finding faults in one incident."

He warned that the anti-Naxal operations were going to be a long haul and there were no easy solutions.

"If we keep sniping like this," what had happened in Kashmir where forces inimical to the country's interest created divisions between security forces and security agencies could be repeated in the Maoist areas. "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.