Jammu & Kashmir, June 21: New Delhi has recommended to the Indian army high command that those officers should “go home” who were in charge of the Uri brigade, the Sunjuwan military camp and the Nagrota army base in Jammu and Kashmir when militants attacked their bases in past few years, a media report said on Friday.
“The government has decided to send these officers home, seeking to take action against the senior leadership for security lapses that may have aided the attacks,” Hindustan Times reported on Friday.
The report said that the government has communicated its recommendation to the Indian Army and essentially the government wants these officers to put in their papers and retire.
“The officers will still be eligible to receive all the benefits that are due to them,” the report said.
It said that the army was communicated that commanders should put in their papers days after the new government was sworn in.
The decision comes less than a month after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was sworn in for a second successive term in office after winning a commanding majority in the April-May general elections.
It said that inquires by the Indian Army into the Uri attack revealed lapses, importantly there had been prior information about a possible attack.
Similarly, inquiries into the attacks in Nagrota and Sunjuwan also revealed command and control lapses.
It said that the government wants to hold senior leadership responsible for lapses that may have aided the militant attacks.
The report said that after the Modi government came back to power last month, it revived the move for action against commanders under whose watch their establishments were attacked by militants.
However, the Indian Army is not keen to retire the commanders because of operational issues. “The attacks have been probed. Necessary steps have been initiated already, can action be initiated again?” it said.
A total of 36 army personnel died in the three attacks, two of which, on the Uri brigade and the Nagrota base, took place in 2016, and the third, on the Sunjuwan camp, last year.
