Accusing Pakistan of repeated ceasefire violations in Jammu & Kashmir, India on Thursday sent out a strong message to Islamabad through diplomatic channels, saying any unprovoked firing by Pakistan would be met with an “effective and forceful response.” At the same time, a top Army commander in Jammu & Kashmir said Indian troops will “retaliate strongly” to any provocations.
After Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar held a meeting in the Home Ministry to review the situation along the loC with Pakistan and India’s response in the past two days, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said while India remained committed to ensuring peace and tranquillity on the border, “there should be no doubt that any unprovoked firing from the Pakistani side would meet with an effective and forceful response from our forces. Nor will we let down our guard against infiltration and cross-border terrorism.”
Reflecting the same attitude, Northern Army Commander lieutenant-General DS Hooda said in Udhampur, “We have seen over the last two weeks or so that the incidents have increased. The response has to be firm. The troops will give a firm response and retaliate effectively as they feel fit. Nobody has to look over their shoulder towards the headquarters, that this is what I need to do.”
India lodged a strong protest with Pakistan through diplomatic channels both in New Delhi and Islamabad after aggressive firing by Pakistan in Jammu & Kashmir over the last two days.
On Wednesday, a BSF personnel was injured by a sniper bullet fired by the Pakistan Rangers and on Thursday heavy mortar shelling in Indian areas led to civilian casualties in which one woman died and ten were injured. Pakistan, on the other hand claimed that four of their nationals have been killed in ceasefire violations by India.
Terming the nature of unprovoked firing by Pakistan as “serious”, Jaishankar said India has made several attempts to talk about this, but Islamabad has only tried to shift the blame on India.
In fact, there were a series of consultations between the officials of the two sides in the last two days. Jaishankar said that going by procedures DIG BSF, in Jammu sought to make telephonic contact with Sector Commander Sialkot four times on Wednesday after Pakistan Rangers started firing, but he did not get any response from his counterpart.
Following this, Doval first spoke to Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, TCA Raghavan, asking him to take it up with the Pakistani Government. He and Jaishankar then spoke to Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi Abdul Basit. “We sought an end to firing as well as corrective steps on their part,” Jaishankar said.
In response, Pakistan accused India of initiating the firing and Pakistani Foreign Secretary handed over a note verbale to Raghavan in Islamabad.
“NSA Doval naturally enquired of High Commissioner Basit why, in that case, the conversations were not initiated by the Pakistani side…. Doval offered to check the drone allegation but pointed out that this was unrelated to maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border. He emphasised the seriousness of the unprovoked firing by Pakistan and conveyed that we would retaliate if it continued. Accordingly, on Wednesday night, our forces retaliated. This morning, High Commissioner Basit spoke to NSA mentioning that there had been casualties and damage on the Pakistani side,” Jaishankar said.
Responding to Pakistani Foreign Secretary’s statement in Islamabad in which he accused India of violating its airspace, Jaishankar made it clear that the drone shot down by Pakistan Army was not the kind that India uses but appeared to be a Chinese commercial UAV easily available in the market. While there are reports that the drone belonged to Pakistani police, Jaishankar only said such UAV’s are not part of India’s inventory. He also countered the Pakistani Government’s charge over helicopter maneuvers by India near the loC on July 11, 2015 as an “offensive and threatening posture”.
“In so far as the allegation of the helicopter maneuvers is concerned, this has already been taken up and settled through an exchange of hotline messages between local formation commanders at Teetwal on July 12-13. The helicopter flight was in connection with the counter-terrorism operation in which three terrorists were neutralized. We had clarified that it was well within the mutually accepted distances from the loC in India. That the Pakistani Government four days later is raising a controversy on a settled issue speaks for itself,” he said.
The western border of India with Pakistan is witnessing a tense situation over the last couple of days even though it was expected to stay at ease after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Ufa last week. The FS said India remains committed to steps that contribute to ensuring peace and tranquillity on the border.