India’s response has come in the wake of a top Pentagon commander
and US Pacific Commander Admiral Robert Willard stating that the Special Forces
teams were deployed to help India with their counter-terrorism co-operation.
Willard said that the two countries were working together against Paksitan-based
terrorist organization Laskar-e-Toiba, responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terror
attack.
Indo-US troops during joint Exercise Yudh Abhyas at Babina in Madhya Pradesh in 2009
Denying the claims of the US Commander, Ministry of Defence
in a statement said: “The Ministry of Defence has come across a press
report relating to remarks attributed to an US Armed Forces official on the positioning
of US Special Forces teams in various South Asian countries, including India.
The report is factually incorrect in so far as the reference to India is
concerned.”
Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar went on to say: “US
Special Forces Teams have never been stationed in India in the past, nor are
such teams stationed in the country presently.”
According to sources, the US 25th infantry division was in
India to conduct a joint military exercise with the Indian Army.
Admiral Willard had said that besides Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka and Maldives, the troops were stationed in India as well.
"We are working very closely with India with regard to
their counter-terrorism capabilities and in particular on the maritime domain
but also government to government, not necessarily department of defence but
other agencies assisting them in terms of their internal counter-terror and counterinsurgency
challenges,” Willard had said.
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