Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat Tuesday said insurgency was on the decline in the Northeast while in Kashmir it is “cyclical” in nature.

“The moment peace tends to return to the Valley, there is an interference from across the border,” he told reporters on the sidelines on an event in New Delhi.

Rawat also  said an “aggressive strategy” has to be maintained in dealing with “ceasefire violations” by Pakistan along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and indicated that the force has been responding effectively to such incidents.

Earlier, interacting with  youth from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, who were in Delhi as part of “a national integration tour”, Rawat said “If we finish (militarily) Pakistan, it will become like Afghanistan, riddled with all sorts of problems which Afghanistan is today facing.”

He was responding to a question on why the Indian Army does not “finish” the Pakistani side.

Rawat said neighbouring nations have to “learn to live with each other”.

“We want to live in peace. Two neighbours living in a colony, if they have any issue, one of them can choose to move house. But, as nations we can’t do that,” he said.

(Inputs from PTI)