The border in Poonch and Rajouri districts has become live for many months. In particular, frequent firing by Pakistani troops on our border posts and villages has created a war like situation. Strangely the Defence Minister did not refer to this dangerous situation while he was making statements on national security scenario in both houses of the Parliament a couple of days ago. Some casualties of Indian troops and civilians have happened as a result of Pak firing and shelling. We understand that our security forces are retaliating to the unprovoked firing from Pakistani side. There have been about eighty major violations of the cease fire agreement of 2003 by Pakistan and these have also been brought to the notice of the Pakistan Government. It appears that Islamabad is in no mood of calling a halt to the wanton firing which has been causing innumerable hardships to the civilian population residing close to the cease fire line. At least ten border villages in districts Poonch and Rajouri are extensively affected by Pakistani firing. Bullets are rained on the houses of civilians, wounding human beings and cattle. Gunfire and mortar shelling are destroying standing crops and the population is forced to leave their home and hearth and seek shelter miles away from their habitats.
Shelling civilian houses and population living close to the LoC has a definite purpose with Pakistani troops. It is part of their game to push jihadis into our side of the line. The firing is meant to provide cover to the intruders by diverting the attention of the troops guarding the border. Now there is a marked shift in Pakistan’s strategy. Pakistani troops are targeting civilian population, their residential houses, their cattle and their crops. The purpose is to create fear psychosis among the civilian population and force them to flee. This helps infiltrators to move about freely once they manage to sneak in. Actually the civilian population is a big obstruction to the jihadis to whom they give no quarter. The local civilian population keeps strict vigil on the movement of the jihadis and reports to the army immediately when something suspicious is detected. Pakistanis want to get rid of this obstruction while conducting their clandestine activity.
Local civilian population has been made to bear innumerable suffering. Schools are unofficially closed because parents are loath to endanger the lives of their children. Attendance in Government departments is thin because nobody wants to be exposed to bullets raining on all sides. This is a chaotic situation and has to be addressed with concrete results. We are fully aware of the intentions of Pakistani army and the ISI. It is of no use to remind them day in and day out that they are not honouring the cease fire agreement. They don’t mean to honour it and the message is clear that they will not. Therefore we need to chalk our strategy of meeting this challenge. Offence is the best kind of defence. Let us first make it very clear to the Government in Islamabad that it cannot make us the cat’s paw while trying to rein in its rogue army and intelligence organization. Islamabad is to be told in no ambiguous terms that we shall retaliate adequately.
Pak army wants to keep Kashmir pot boiling. It achieves two purposes: one Kashmir cause whips religious passion among the people and secondly it scuttles Nawaz Sharief’s intentions of befriending India and putting bilateral disputes on backburner. Intensifying firing on LoC is the direct result of deepening distrust between Pakistan army and the civilian Government in Islamabad. But this does not mean that we close eyes to our security concerns.
Before concluding this analysis it is important to impress upon the State and the Union Government to immediately mitigate the suffering of the families affected by Pakistani firing on the border.
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