A weak-kneed Indian Government on Tuesday refused to even acknowledge the involvement of Pakistan Army in the killing of five soldiers and forced the Indian Army to toe its line that “people dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms” attacked the Indian patrol.
For well over five hours on Tuesday, the Indian Army and Defence Minister AK Antony sharply differed on who carried out the deadly attack on Indian soldiers. In the end, the Army had to change its original Press release and remove the paragraph about the involvement of Pakistani soldiers in the attack.
That belated “change” brought the Indian Army and Antony on the same page, but left the Defence Minister vulnerable to sharp attack from the Opposition in Parliament for lacking the courage to even name the Pakistan Army in the attack.
In the first official Press note, the Army said a patrol of Indian Army was ambushed by a Pakistan Border Action Team close to the line of Control (loC) in Poonch sector.
In the ensuing firefight, five Indian soldiers were martyred. The ambush was carried out by approximately 20 heavily-armed terrorists along with soldiers of Pakistan Army.
The revised version, issued late in the evening after leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury cornered Antony, said the ambush was carried out by approximately 20 heavily-armed terrorists along with “people dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms.”
On his part, Antony said that 15 to 20 heavily-armed terrorists along with “persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms” ambushed the Indian patrol even though the Army gave a different version.
The Army had to change it later in the evening when Antony faced flak in Parliament for not directly naming the Pakistan Army and providing Islamabad an escape route to deny its involvement in the dastardly act.
Antony stuck to his statement despite severe criticism and said being a responsible country, his statement was based on confirmed reports.
“At this stage we do not want to jump to conclusions,” he said adding that India's response will depend on the signals that it is getting
from Pakistan.
While India lacked the courage to name and shame Pakistan, the Pakistani military on Tuesday refused to even admit any incident took place at all.
“No such incident has taken place on the loC,” an official with the Army's Inter-Services Public Relations said.
“There was no indiscriminate firing from our side,” one Pakistani security official told a news agency.
Expressing concern over the incident, leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley slammed the Government for giving an escape route to Pakistan by using the term “people dressed in Pakistan Army uniform” in his statement.
Pointing out that Pakistan has always been in denial mode and built its defence on the ground that non-State players were involved in such incidents, Jaitley said the Government has once again given it an opportunity to claim that they were non-State actors.
Pakistan is not entitled to such a magnanimous offer, he said and criticized Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's erroneous statement in the past that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and attempts to revisit India's foreign policy.
Terming it a grave mistake, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury asked whether the Government conducted any investigation to find out that they were not Pakistan Army personnel but terrorists. He said the Government appears to have pre-judged the conclusion which is not inspiring any confidence as it is defending Pakistan Army.
Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav wondered why the Government is defending Pakistan Army when all political parties are supporting it on the issue.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said: “In Pakistan, terrorists are in the army and the army is a terrorist, there is no difference.”
BJP MP Chandan Mitra said: “Woh ek marenge, toh hum chaar marenge. (If they kill one Indian soldier, we will kill four Pakistani soldiers in retaliation).”
Antony admitted that the number of infiltration attempts had doubled this year in comparison to the corresponding period of 2012 and there has been an 80 per cent jump in ceasefire violations this year.
Strongly condemning this unprovoked incident, the Government has lodged a strong protest with the Pakistani Government through diplomatic channels, he said and assured that the Indian Army is ready to take all necessary steps to uphold the sanctity of the loC.
The border is being patrolled continuously and armed forces are on vigil. The morale of the armed forces is high and the Army Chief is confident that they can handle the situation, Antony informed the House.