Evacuation relevant only in conventional warfare: Channi

Evacuating the villages along the border was relevant only in case of conventional warfare, as with the modern weapons even places far from the border were not safe, Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi said today.
On the fifth day of his 'Jawani Sambhal Yatra' here, he claimed that majority of the border area residents have decided to stay put as crops were about to ripen and there were also several other issues involved.
"The precaution taken by the government to get the border area villages was relevant only in case of conventional warfare as with the modern weapons, cities even 500 km away from the border were not safe," Channi said.

People living within 10 km of the border with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab were on Thursday asked to shift to safer places till further notice in the wake of surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army across the Line of Control (LoC).
Channi said the phase when houses in the border belt used to be kachha (non concrete) is over and the situation has changed and people have built pucca (concrete) houses.
Claiming the way the state government went about making announcements in the border area villages to pack up within hours "created panic", he said, "In the war in 1965, these very people had served fresh food to the troops fighting on the border and thereby set the example of service to the country."

"Only those villagers had withdrawn that had come directly under the firing line," the Congress Legislature Party leader in Punjab said.

Channi said he was not opposed to taking precautionary measures but the issue was that of creating panic as people themselves were aware of the situation.
The government issued orders even when the army had not moved to the border, he said.
He appreciated the decision taken by the government to allow the farmers to go to their fields across the border fence as time was now crucial for crops.
He stressed the need for instilling confidence among the people of the border areas, saying they have faced several such situations earlier.