Helicopter incident shows Pakistan Army is a professional institution, Indian General

ISLAMABAD, Nov 1 (APP): Indian Major General (retd) Jatinder Singh said Pakistan’s decision to return an Indian helicopter vindicated his view that its army is a professional institution. In a letter published in “The Hindu”, General Sharma said Pakistan allowed an Indian helicopter with four army personnel to return home five hours after the aircraft was forced to land in Skardu for violating Pakistani airspace.

“This action vindicates my long held view that the Pakistan army is a professional institution, not a rogue army as some sections of the media, service colleagues, and politicians would like to suggest,” he added.

He said, “Even if Pakistan had shot down the helicopter and shown it as a crash, thereby making us incur a loss of trained men and an expensive machine, we would not have been able to ascertain the truth, considering the sparsely populated terrain of Skardu.”

He said the terrain precludes the use of radars for monitoring and charting the flight path from India’s side of the border.

The incident speaks volumes for the speed in decision-making, communications set-up and the maturity of the Pakistani army hierarchy, Jatinder Singh added.