The Army is alarmed over the spurt in ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the last one-and-half month after Director General Military Operations (DGMOs) of two countries met at Attari-Wagah to maintain peace at the line of Control (loC).
lt General Vinod Bhatia met his Pakistani counterpart Major General Aamer Riaz face-to-face on December 24 last and both sides agreed to resolve any contentious issues by holding flag meetings. However, peace on the loC did not last long and the last 40 days have seen at least seven ceasefire violations by Pakistan Army and the Indian Army lodged a strong protest over one such violation 10 days back.
last year, the loC witnessed more than 190 ceasefire violations besides 60 incidents on the international border and things cooled down after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif met on the sideline of UN Summit in New York in September last year. They decided that the DGMOs will meet face-to-face and work out ways to restore peace on the loC. This announcement had a brief salutary effect as the loC did not see even a single violation from late October till January 13 this year. Incidentally, the two DGMOs met for the first time since Kargil war in 1999. They generally talk to each other once a week on the hotline.
Asked about the recent ceasefire violations after the DGMO-level talks, Defence Minister AK Antony had said last week, “I am keeping my fingers crossed as to what will happen in summer. The real test of our security preparations will be in summer when infiltration from across the loC picks up after snow melts thereby making it easier for militants to sneak in through the ingress routes,” he said. The Minister also said as compared to 2012, the last year saw a jump in ceasefire violations.
While the last one month did not see any major infiltration bids by the militants from across the loC, Army sources did not rule out the possibility of some militants managing to sneak in when the Pakistanis opened fire on Indian posts. Pakistan Army generally resorts to these tactics and give covering fire to militants who infiltrate during the initial confusion, sources said, adding some militants may have come in.
Most of these incidents took place in South of Pir Panjal mountain ranges in Poonch and Rajouri sectors barring one in Uri in north Kashmir, officials said. Explaining the significance of these ceasefire violations, they said militants find it difficult to infiltrate in towns and villages bordering Kashmir valley due to heavy snow.
It blocks all the ingress routes during winter months and special measures like aggressive patrolling in these regions along the loC deters the militants from crossing over. However, the weather is different in South of Pir Panjal where there is virtually no snow and Pakistan-backed militants are now making all efforts to sneak in and go into hiding in the hinterland.
Concerned over these developments, the security forces have strengthened their counter-infiltration and counter-insurgency grid in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu region and prevent the militants from coming into the towns and mingle with local population to avoid detection, officials said. Incidentally, Poonch and Rajouri sectors last year saw Pakistani commandos, along with laskhar-e-Tayyeba, militants beheading one soldier and killing six others in two separate incidents during cross border raids in January and July respectively.
Officials also said Pakistan Army was trying to gain moral ascendancy on the loC by opening fire on Indian locations when the battalions posted there are in the process of moving out and a new unit coming in. This happened when five soldiers of Bihar Regiment were killed in the cross-border raid in July as this unit was moving out and a new unit was settling in, they said.
As regards border meetings between the two Armies, Brigade Commanders of India and Pakistan met in Rajouri some weeks back after the DGMO-level talks to reiterate their commitment to maintain peace along the loC. Before and after the two high-level flag meetings, troops have foiled more than half a dozen infiltration bids in the Poonch sector alone. Special Forces of Pakistan Army had even attempted an operation in the Poonch sector but the same was aborted by the alert Indian troops. GOC-in-C Northern Command headquarters lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra has already termed year 2014 as the challenging year in the backdrop of withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the forthcoming lok Saba and Assembly polls.