Gen. Gaganjit calls Dehar Kuria incident unfortunate

GUWAHATI: Reacting to conflicting reports about the Dehar Kuria incident that led to death of nine people including an army Major, the Army called the entire operation "a freak and unfortunate incident."
Major General Gaganjit Singh, GOC, Red Horn Division, while addressing the media stated that the late officer Major R A S Thabah had acted on the information provided by one Mohd.Ali in the interest of the villagers.
The GOC said the Major who was a brilliant officer and had served in NSG died while trying to serve the people of Dehar Kuria village in Hajo police station. The villagers mistook him and his men as militants and attacked them with sharp weapons killing him and another Jawan on the spot. Had he retaliated the number of causalities would have been much more.
Reacting to reports appearing in a section of the press that the army was involved in extortion racket, the GOC said such statements are uncalled for as they are not only baseless but they also affect the morale of the troops operating in the region under adverse circumstances. He called upon the media to bring even a single case of involvement of troops in such a racket.
On the need for carrying out covert operations is concerned where security forces have to go in civil clothes, the General said such operation are carried out by security agencies all over the world.
The GOC said, "this is also not for the first time that false information is planted to security forces."
He said the reports that there is no co-ordination between army and civil administration is also wrong as every day hundreds of patrols are going out and if there was no co-ordination things would not have been as successful as they are now. He said, "it is due to successful co-ordination between security forces and civil administration that peace has returned to the state."