*Strategy in place to counter BAT attacks
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 7: Army chief Gen Bikram Singh was today reported to have called upon the Army Commanders to give effective response to any misadventure by Pakistan Army and militants on the Line of Control (LoC) and take all possible measures to prevent recurrence of Poonch like incidents in which five Army jawans were killed.
Gen Singh, who was scheduled to visit 93 Brigade Headquarters in Poonch to review the situation, had to cancel his visit to the border district in view of bad weather conditions. He returned to Akhnoor and was closeted with top Army Commanders at 10 Infantry Div in Akhnoor to review the situation arising out of the killings and steps required to beef up security on the LoC.
In another development, Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMOs) Maj Gen Asfaque Nadeem rang up his Indian counterpart Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia and discussed yesterday’s incident.
Reliable sources told the Excelsior that the militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), who were part of Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT), had conducted advance recee of the area to observe movement of the Indian Army jawans before carrying out the attack in wee hours of yesterday’s morning. Pakistan Army regulars had reportedly joined the BAT in the attack.
Sources said the Army chief held high level security review at Akhnoor along with Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra, GOC 16 Corps Lt Gen DS Hooda, 25 Infantry Div GOC Maj Gen VP Singh (headquartered at Rajouri), 93 Brigade Commander Brig Sunil Kumar Acharya (headquartered at Poonch) and 10 Brigade Commander Brig. Sanjay Thakran among others.
The Army chief, who landed at Technical Airport here at about 10 am, laid wreaths on the bodies of five martyr jawans along with Lt Gen Chachra, Lt Gen Hooda, GOC Tiger Division, Maj Gen Ashwani Kumar and Air Officer Commanding Air Commodore P E Patagia.
As weather was not clear in Poonch, the Army chief had a halt at 16 Corps Headquarters at Nagrota. In the afternoon, the helicopter carrying the Army chief and other senior officers to Poonch had to return from Nagrota due to adverse weather conditions. Gen Singh and other senior officers then reached Akhnoor where they held high-level inter-action.
In the evening, the Army chief flew back to New Delhi from the Technical Airport, where he would brief Defence Minister AK Antony about the situation.
Sources said the Army chief reportedly stressed for high level of alertness along the LoC to ensure that such kind of incidents were not repeated. He is said to have called upon the Army officers to direct the field Commanders to give effective reply to any Pakistani misadventure and thwart their nefarious designs.
The Army Commanders briefed the Army chief about the incident including the involvement of Pakistan Army, which was directly or indirectly involved in the killings. Though there was no official version of the high level meeting, sources said the Army officers were of the view that such a major incident was not possible without direct involvement of the Pakistan Army. Some of them were of the view that Pakistani regulars could be part of 20 members BAT comprising LeT and JeM militants, which carried out the “hit and run attack’’ in Sarla battalion area of Chakan-Da-Bagh sub sector in Poonch early yesterday killing five Army soldiers and injuring another.
“The Army has devised a strategy to give effective response to Pakistan Army in case of any misadventure and protect the soldiers from yesterday like attack in future. The strategy would be put in place immediately,’’ sources said, adding the field Commanders have been briefed about the strategy.
The night patrols would have increased number of soldiers now onwards so that they were in a position to counter the attack either by the militants or by Pakistan Army, sources said.
They added that the BAT members comprising top commanders of LeT and JeM, members of Special Service Group (SSG) and Pakistan Army appeared to have conducted recee of the area two days back before launching the attack.
“The attack was pre-planned and well planned. The BAT had taken full view of the area, watched the movement of Army patrol and carried out the attack at isolated place from where the distance to Army posts was quite far. The BAT had used silencer fitted weapons in the attack,’’ sources said.
Meanwhile, top military officials of Pakistan and India today spoke to each other on hotline to lower tension after the killing of five Indian soldiers.
Sources said the two Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) established a “special hotline contact this morning” to discuss the situation “arising out of the killings.
“Pakistan Army DGMO, as usual had no answer but to deny the hand of their troops behind the killings,’’ they added.
Instead, Pakistan lodged a strong protest during hotline talk for “LoC violation by Indian troops in Pandu sector in Uri area today in which two Pakistan soldiers were seriously wounded.”
An agreement to maintain ceasefire along the LoC was signed in November 2003 but its violations by Pakistan Army have increased in recent months. Tension rose in January and February and again in July after a series of border incidents.
On January 8, Pakistan Army had intruded deep inside the Indian territory and killed two jawans. They had taken away head of one of the jawan with them.
Meanwhile, at Technical Airport here, the Army Chief and other officers stood in silence for sometime as a mark of respect to the soldiers after laying wreaths on their bodies, kept in the coffins draped with tricolor.
The bugle played the last post and a contingent of the Army presented salute on the occasion.
The bodies were flown around 3.45 pm today from Jammu to Delhi. The bodies were later flown from Delhi to Patna and Pune in Air Force aircraft, they said, adding while four bodies would be flown to Patna another would be taken to Pune.
Meanwhile, situation remained tense all along the LoC in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri. Army was maintaining a high alert on the LoC. However, no ceasefire violation or infiltration attempt by the militants were reported from any part of the two districts today.
The villagers living along the LoC were, however, tense. They felt that any aggravation of the situation could create problems for them as they would have to shift to safer areas. Most of them stressed for peace on the LoC and condemned Pakistan Army and the militants for violating ceasefire to flare up the situation.
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