Army mulls over longer tenures for commanders on counter-terror duties

The Indian Army is mulling over longer tenures for top field commanders in terrorist-insurgency prone areas to push them to initiate action against the adversary rather than bide time for the next higher command assignment.

It is understood that the Army Headquarters is planning to extend tenures of Divisional Commanders and Corps Commanders from normally one year to around two years so that the field commander focuses on the counter-terrorist duties at hand rather than bide his time for the next promotion. This particularly applies to Corps and Divisional commanders serving in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East.

According to South Block sources, Corps (headed by Lt General) and Division (headed by Major General) and Brigades (headed by Brigadiers) deployed in counterterrorist and counter-insurgency duties will now have a tenure of 15 to 18 months before being moved out to the next assignment.

“The attitude of playing it safe for the next promotion will be discouraged and the officer will be judged by the action taken against cross-border infiltration and jihadists from across and within the UT of Jammu and Kashmir,” said a top commander.

The Indian Army is concerned about the terror strikes by Pak based proscribed groups in the Nagrota based 16 Corps area particularly in Poonch-Rajouri sector in Jammu and Kashmir since 2021. While the actions of the leadership and whether standard operating procedures were followed are being reviewed by the Headquarters, the “playing it safe” attitude of the field commanders has caught attention of the top leadership.

The death of 10 Indian Army soldiers including four belonging to the elite Special Forces in Rajouri area in two incidents of April 20 and May 5 have brought the focus on leadership in the field formations. It is understood that two groups of Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists belonging to Kotli based Sajjid Jutt aka Habibullah Malik module are operating in Kandi Forests of Rajouri and are currently being hotly engaged by the Indian Army.

These terrorists are armed with under barrel grenade launchers apart from assault rifles and are taking advantage of Pakistan mobile network coverage across the LoC in India. Fact is that Pakistan has built a network of high-powered mobile towers all along the international border and LoC in Jammu and Kashmir with operational range well within Indian territory and is being used by Pakistani jihadists to launch cross border attacks. This apart, Pakistani terror groups with tacit support of the Pak Army are sending weapon shipments through drones for J&K local terrorists to cause mayhem in the South Kashmir area.

The sudden spurt of violence in Poonch-Rajouri sector is part of Pakistan plan to derail the May 22-24 Srinagar meeting of G 20 grouping with no less than Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Zardari openly threatening India on the side-lines of SCO FMs Meeting in Goa on May 4-5.

The Indian Army, security forces and the intelligence have taken up the Pak challenge and are focused on avenging the death of Indian troopers in Rajouri sector with area military leadership directed to wipe out terrorists from this sector.