Gestures of goodwill shown by Mian Nawaz Sharief before and after he assumed the reins of the new Government in Pakistan are belied by the happenings on the ground. Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Toiba legions dressed in the outfit of Pakistani soldiers to be disguised as soldiers, lay in ambush in Chakan-da-Bag area of Poonch sector, intruded 500 yards inside the LoC on our side, laid ambush and encircled the Indian army patrol on normal duty. The intruders were no fewer than twenty who encircled the Indian patrol, rained bullets on them, martyred five and made one jawan wounded. Our base camp rushed reinforcement but the cowardly intruders had run away in the darkness.
This is one of the series of intrusions that infiltrators from PoK have been undertaking this summer. No less than 57 bids of intrusion have been made during this summer with most of these foiled by our border security forces. But odd chances of success for the infiltrators to sneak in cannot be ruled out owing to the long and porous border that it is. The Pakistani army has been giving fire cover to the infiltrators most of the time though at other times they can do it without cover, for example, during dense fog or through thick forests. They laid ambush and attacked without provocation. This is violation of cease fire agreement that exists between the two countries and which had been observed most of the time. It is only past one year or so that Pakistani troops have resorted to regular intermittent firing and the bids of infiltration have accelerated largely this year.
There is a piquant situation in Pakistan. The Army and ISI are least in favour of the Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharief embarking on cordial relations with India. This goes against their desk- book principle. Pakistani army loses much of its clout once Kashmir issue is solved. Previously also whenever Pakistani civilian leadership tried to mend fences the ISI stuck in and gave a different direction to the Indo-Pakistan dialogue.
The point is that we reserve reciprocating of goodwill for the day when Pakistan Prime Minister is able to exercise his prime ministerial powers in full and relegate the army to its constitutional duty and not let it interfere in civilian administration. However, it is not for us to decide what type of political structure Pakistan wants for herself. Since the ground situation does not prove conducive to bilateral talks, the Prime Minister of India is not under any obligation moral or political to extend his hand for handshake with Pakistani Prime Minister. We rather pity his position that a man of such a vast popularity should be dwarfed by the army.
On our level, it is evident that Pakistan is on warpath. Her attitude during past one year and more especially his adventurous enterprises of beheading an Indian soldier and taking his head away beside intermittent firing on or posts especially in vulnerable regions like Krishna Ghati or Mendhar indicate that Pakistan army has nefarious designs and they are on the outlook for a pretext to lit the flames of a destructive war. The axiom is that if you want peace be prepared for war. Fortunately, we have the pre-requisites necessary to take a strong retaliatory step. In the first place, political parties of all hues and denominations have unanimously offered their support to the Government to take appropriate steps for meeting this challenge. Secondly, we have the will and determination to strike back at our choosing. At diplomatic level, New Delhi must get into contact with all major powers in the west and explain how Pakistan has been steadily making situation dangerously complex. All the western powers are already convinced that Pakistan is the cradle of terrorism and she is herself being targeted day in and day out. Thousands of innocent Pakistani civilians have been killed by the home grown terrorist. As such, we should make it clear to them that India is within her rights and jurisdiction to strike back only in self defence.
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