The democratically elected Government in Pakistan may have been contemplating fresh peace overtures and already engaged in track-II diplomacy to normalise ties with India but on ground zero the Pakistani Army is ‘willfully’ trying to provoke an Indian reaction by targeting supply lines of the Indian Army.
In the last two months, the Pakistani Army/suspected infiltrators have targeted Indian porters on three occasions and had threatened them with dire consequences if they continued to transport essential supplies for the Indian Army to forward locations.
The first incident was reported on May 14, 2013 when a group of porters were manhandled and threatened by suspected militants. Then the porters were threatened in June again by suspected infiltrators in the forward area. On July 8, a 20-year-old porter was killed when their group was targeted from across the line of Control with an aim to scare them away.
On July 1, a suspected ‘fidayeen’ was blown into pieces in Saujiyan sector of Poonch as he allegedly attempted to target forward Indian post to inflict maximum injuries to jawans posted there.
A senior officer of the Special Operations Group of J&K Police in Poonch claimed that Border Action Teams of Pakistani Army have been directed to carry out strikes in the forward areas by infiltrating inside the Indian territory. He said the Army jawans and local police are on high alert to prevent any attack or infiltration bid.
In the recent days ‘unprovoked’ firing from the Pakistani side of the loC and numerous incidents of ceasefire violations in Poonch sector alone have also triggered unrest among the civilian population falling directly under the line of fire of fortified bunkers of the enemy.
The death of a 20-year-old civilian porter Javed Iqbal hailing from village Ghagrian in Mandi tehsil of Poonch even brought angry villagers close to the loC on Tuesday where they held protest demonstration against the Pakistani Army and shouted slogans thrashing ‘cowardly act’ of attacking civilian porters.
According to a Government doctor in Poonch, who conducted the post-mortem of the deceased porter: “The right hand of Javed Iqbal was amputated under the impact of the blast. He said multiple splinter injuries all over his body caused his death.”
The villagers along with a large number of women, holding toddlers in their lap, attended the funeral procession and demanded that the Indian Army should teach a lesson to the “enemies of peace”.
“It is high time the Indian Army take some action and effectively retaliate to silence their guns,” the angry villagers demanded. Mir Hussain of Saujiyan village said, “Pakistani Army is not allowing us to live peaceful lives. They have been regularly violating ceasefire agreement and even targeting civilians to shatter peace in the area.” Sarpanch of village Ghagrian, Khilal Ahmad said, “It is becoming difficult for them to stay put in the forward villages as Pakistani Army is regularly violating ceasefire agreement and attacking civilian areas.”
He said, on July 8 when 20-year-old porter Javed Iqbal was killed in the IED blast, the Pakistani Army did not allow them to retrieve his dead body. He said, the Pakistani Army targeted Indian soldiers every time they made an attempt to bring back the body.
The Army jawans, with great difficulty, managed to bring back the body and handed over the same to the family for last rites, he added.