‘Need to address the internal enemy, it has been ignored for long, ’ says retired Indian army officer Lieutenant General Devendra Pratap Pandey on Friday. With this, he added that it has become quite common for the public to blame the government without understanding the core problem also lies within the enemy within the borders.
Speaking at the National Security Summit, Lt Gen Pandey (Retd) said that the "DNA of the country is only to look at the external enemy, military preparedness, but the problem of the internal enemy has never been understood in a much more real sense. Even when we have been attacked from the West or anywhere, we have been able to hold back, but ‘Darwaze humesha andar se khule’ (Doors have always been opened from inside). It is the internal enemy which is difficult to identify. DNA of our country remains that we look at the external enemy, military preparedness, but the problem we never look at is the internal enemy, and that comes in some sort of DNA which is built into us, ignoring the problem which is manifesting in the neighbourhood. We don't look in the eyes of the enemy and call them out that you are the enemy of tomorrow, and when it starts striking tomorrow, we become episodic.”
Giving insights into the November 10 Red Fort terror attack involving a suicide car blast, which claimed the lives of at least 15 people and left several injured, Pandey said, "Doctors who were part of the whole cycle were not some five-year-old investment after the 2019 abrogation in J-K. These guys were preparing since 2010, where was the pressure cooker then? Terrorism in Kashmir did not start exactly 30 years ago; seeds were sown much before, but 30 years back, it started manifesting in your face, and the intel agencies and government tried to look away, thinking this problem would go away. They thought to seed in more funds, those funds were given to milk those snakes, which were coming back to bite you. The same funds are used against our institution and country," he added.
In a fresh lead to the deadly car blast near Red Fort in Delhi, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a Faridabad resident for allegedly sheltering the suicide bomber, Dr Umar Un Nabi, shortly before the terror act.
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