Allegations that the pilots and crew of an Air Force helicopter abandoned an injured policeman in Chhattisgarh are "all nonsense," said Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne today.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to the Defence Ministry, asking for a detailed enquiry into the incident and punishment for the pilots.
"The impression that they abandoned, they ran away, I think this is all nonsense," the air chief said.
Last month, the Air Force was asked to evacuate a policeman injured in gun battle with Naxals in South Bastar. The Mi-17 helicopter was hit at least a dozen times as it landed; a wireless operator on board from the Chhattisgarh police was injured. The pilots and crew rushed to the safety of a police camp nearby, leaving the injured man behind with two Light Machine Guns and their personal weapons.
The air force chief said today that the team left the helicopter and the man who'd been injured because they were aware they could be taken hostage, which would have created a bigger crisis.
The chief also warned that "It (anti-Naxal operations) is going to be a long haul and it is not about easy solutions.If we keep sniping like this, the same thing happened in the (Kashmir) Valley and is still happening there where they (forces inimical to the country's interest) want to create divisions between security forces and security agencies."