Troop movement on Jan 16 was purely for training purpose: Govt

In a written reply to the Upper House yesterday, Defence Minister A K Antony said, "The movement was purely for training purpose aimed at refining the mobilisation drills and ensuring operational preparedness of the Army despite adverse weather condition."

According to a newspaper report, the central intelligence agencies reported that on the night of January 16, there was an unexpected and non-notified movement by key military unit around Delhi in the direction of the capital.

Stating that no such report was received by the Defence Ministry with regard to such troop movement, Antony said, "On 16 January, one of the units of Para brigade carried out mobilisation to practice mounting from an alternate airfield other than Agra during fogged out condition."

Similar exercise was carried out by 33 Armoured Division where a mechanised infantry battalion was mobilised towards Bahadurgarh to validate its loading, movement and occupation of a harbour in poor visibility condition, the Defence Minister said.