Antony confirms Army troop movement,but remains silent on questions raised

He also confirmed the movement of a mechanised infantry battalion that was part of the 33 Armoured Division to Bahadurgarh on the same dates,again for a routine exercise. “The battalion reached the general area of Bahadurgarh in the morning hours of January 17 and proceeded to occupy the harbour necessitated for dispersal as per standing operation procedure,” Antony said.

Maintaining that the ministry did not receive any report from intelligence agencies on the movements,Antony sought to downplay the matter,saying both were “purely for training purposes”. He also said that “having validated their mobilisation drills,both the columns moved back subsequently”.

However,he did not address the issue of how his ministry reacted to these movements. He remained silent on whether notifications are required when troop movements are taking place near the NCR. While the minister said routine mobilisations by divisional levels are notified to Army HQ,he did not specify whether the two movements were specifically notified,given that the Director General of Military Operations was not aware of them when questioned by the ministry. Antony did not address the questions raised by this newspaper on why the ministry asked the Army to explain the movements and pull back troops.

Even as the sequence of events leading to the troop movements are revealed in detail,the minister has remained silent on the meeting between Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and Director General of Military Operations Lt Gen AK Choudhary to explain the movements. The government’s detailed response to the movements — setting up of barricades and sounding of a terror alert — has also not been discussed.

Antony did not get into details of why the movements were carried out towards the national capital and not in any other direction and the reason behind not informing the Air Force for the exercise involving the Para brigade.