Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said that the Northern Command of the defence force will get new sniper rifles by January 20. During his annual press briefing in the national capital on Thursday, the Army chief also said a final deadline on ordered and missile and rocket is expected from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) by February or March, 2019.

General Rawat, however, added that if the deadlines are not met, then the Army can explore the options of importing the same.

“By February or March, the DRDO will be giving us the final timeline as to when the ordered missile and rocket can be introduced. If they are failing and timelines are not being met, then we go in for the import mechanism,” said the Army chief.

Talking about the situation along the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC), General Rawat said that “there are around 300 terrorists waiting across the LoC to infiltrate into India”. He, however, added that “we have managed the situation well along borders with China and Pakistan”.

When asked about the modus operandi of the Army in tackling such situations, the Army chief said, “Army is using quadcopters for surveillance of areas for information if somebody is lying there or you can see some warlike material in an area. Then we try and cautiously approach that area where either there's poor visibility or while taking difficult area.”

Talking about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, General Rawat conceded that the situation in the state needed to be improved further. “We are just facilitators for peace in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.

On the issue of Army veterans, General Rawat said that he had noticed some “kind of disunity among some of our veterans”. He said, “I think they (veterans) need to be united. Our veterans are a very strong community which is required to support the mainstream, they can do that if they unite and remain united.”