General Bipin Rawat terms Pakistani deployment along LoC as ‘precautionary measure’, says no need to get ‘too concerned’ about it

New Delhi: Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said the deployment of troops by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) is more of a “precautionary measure”, adding that one should not get “too concerned” about it. [caption id=“attachment_4372431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Army chief Bipin Rawat. PTI[/caption] “If the adversary wants to activate the LoC, that is his choice. Everybody does precautionary deployments; we should not get too concerned about it. As far as the Army and other services are concerned, we always have to be prepared”, Rawat told ANI when asked about reports of increased deployment of troops along the LoC. General Rawat opined that with the withdrawal of special status to Jammu and Kashmir through the abrogation of Article 370, the situation in the Valley will go back to normal and the Army can once again go back to having a cordial relationship with the public. “We will stay with the public even after the removal of Article 370. One should know how the Army and the common public used to live together in Jammu and Kashmir in the ’70s and ’80s. We used to meet without guns and if everything stays normal we will once again go back to having that relationship”, Rawat said. The Parliament passed a resolution withdrawing special status to Jammu and Kashmir last week. It also passed the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganization) Act 2019, whereby Jammu and Kashmir would be bifurcated into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir with legislature and Ladakh without it.