Army chief Bipin Rawat wants security, intelligence stepped up at bases

Army chief general Bipin Rawat on Wednesday flagged concerns about the security of military installations in the hinterland, stressing the need to deploy robust intelligence and surveillance systems to prevent a repeat of Uri and Pathankot-style militant attacks.

Rawat said the army was working on plans to deploy electronic warfare and early-warning systems to keep an eye not only on border areas but also the hinterland.

"Security of bases in the hinterland is a cause for concern," Rawat said at a FICCI seminar on finding solutions to the army's



modernisation problems through indigenisation.

Nineteen soldiers were killed when suspected Pakistani militants struck at an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri on September 18, 2016, one of the deadliest strikes against the force in recent years.

Ten days later, Indian soldiers crossed the line of control and attacked terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

On January 2 of the same year, a group of heavily armed alleged Pakistan militants had stormed the Pathankot airbase, a three-day siege that left six soldiers dead.