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As New Delhi raged over the attack by Pakistani troops claiming the lives of two Indian soldiers on Indian soil, and the mutilation of the bodies, the Union ministry of home has received inputs that suggest that Indian army units in the Uri sector could have provoked the incident. While there was sporadic firing exchanged in some parts ofthe LoC, a cross-border raid by the ghatak (commando) platoon of the 9th Maratha Light Infantry (MLI) in the early hours of Sunday could have been the provocation.
Top sources in the Union Home and defence ministries told DNA that the Pakistani attack was in all likelihood a retaliation for the attack carried out by 9 MLI.
The commander of the 161 brigade, stationed in the Churchunda sub-sector, Brigadier Gulab Singh Rawat, had decided to take a very aggressive posture. Sources said that he asked the commanding officer of 9 MLI to take proactive action, to launch a quick raid against a post that was harassing Indian positions.
The successful Indian raid led to the death of a Pakistaninon-commissioned officer and escalated tensions across the LoC.
Normally, such an escalation leads to the issuing of a formal alert from the Udhampur-based North Command of the army to all its formations. This alert should have gone out to all the three corps that it commands the Nagrota (Jammu) based 16 Corps, the Srinagar-based 15 Corps and the Leh-based 14 Corps.
Of these, 14 and 15 Corps are the most active as they man the LoC from Jammu right through to Kargil, from where 14 Corps takes over.
Incidentally, the neighbouring 12 Brigade in Uri had just seen a change of command after Brig RK Singh took over from Brig BS Raju. Any change of command of a major formation on the LoC is a sensitive time and troops are expected to be on high alert. The absence of the alert led to all the formations running things as business as usual. That was when the Pakistanis decided to retaliate in the Mendhar sector that is part of the northern Jammu region.
This area is manned by the 25th Division of the Indian Army and 13 Rajputana Rifles was one of the battalions manning this sector.
While army headquarters believes that the attack was carried out by men from the Baloch regiment, it has not ruled out the role of a team of the Special Service Group (SSG) which is part of the elite Pakistani Special Forces. Reports suggest that the attacking party was dressed in black dungarees usually preferred by the SSG.
Another intelligence input suggests that this could have been an attack carried out by irregulars from the LeT after its chief, Hafeez Saeed started raising Border Action Guards to attack Indian troop positions on the LoC. Indian intelligence experts have ruled out the attack as a major shift in policy on part of the Pakistani General Headquarters (GHC) in Rawalpindi.
We believe that this was a local action purely in retaliation of what the raid our troops carried out in the Uri sector, a senior intelligence official told DNA. The Union home ministry is also looking at the role played by Brig Rawat and whether his aggressive posture could have been avoided.
There is a feeling in the government that Brig Rawat has a very aggressive track record which could have escalated tensions on the LoC at a time when the nine-year-old ceasefire was holding up well. An inquiry into the incident has been ordered by Army Headquarters and a decision on Brig Rawat could also be taken in the coming days.
DNA exclusive: Uri commanders forceful retaliation led to beheadings? - India - DNA
10 January 2013 Last updated at 11:30 GMT
India 'provoked Kashmir clash after woman crossed LoC'
Two Indian newspapers have suggested the army may have provoked recent fatal clashes in the disputed Kashmir region.
The reports say commanders breached a ceasefire accord by ordering new observation posts on the dividing Line of Control (LoC) after a 70-year-old woman crossed it unhindered last year.
Two Indian soldiers died on Tuesday after what Delhi says was a Pakistani raid, days after Pakistan said one of its soldiers died in an Indian attack.
Both sides deny provoking the clashes.
'Aggressive',The Indian government has reacted with fury to what it says was a highly provocative raid by Pakistani forces earlier this week.But in a rare case of contradicting the army line, two Indian newspapers say the sudden spike in violence may instead have been provoked by its recent actions - and a grandmother deciding to join her family in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
According to The Hindu newspaper, after the 70 year-old woman managed to cross the LoC unhindered last September, alarmed Indian commanders responded by ordering new observation posts in the area - construction work that is barred under a 10-year-old ceasefire agreement between the two rivals.
Pakistan reportedly made its displeasure known, at first via a tannoy system across the relatively small gap between the two sides, and then by firing.On 6 January, an Indian commander known for his "very aggressive track record", according to Daily News and Analysis (DNA), decided to counter-attack resulting in a Pakistani soldier being killed.
Islamabad alleges that Indian troops also crossed the LoC in that attack - something Delhi denies.The Pakistanis then hit back with a raid across another border area on Tuesday morning, with India condemning their actions as "barbaric" and "inhuman" following reports the bodies of the two Indian soldiers who died had been mutilated.
Pakistan denies Indian accounts of what happened.
The DNA newspaper also says that Indian troops across the region did not receive the standard alert after the Sunday raid. Instead, other units were "running things as business as usual".
India's defence ministry spokesman Col Jagdish Dahiya denied any recent actions "could have provoked Pakistan".But he said there had been "routine maintenance of our fortifications" in the area where the fighting occurred last Sunday, near the village of Charonda.These were not new posts, he insisted, and so "this could not be considered a ceasefire violation".
There had been an Indian attack in the Charonda area on Sunday, he said, to "retaliate" for Pakistani firing on Indian positions.Asked about reports no alert had been given after this, he said procedures were being looked into but he could not comment further.The army is now carrying out an inquiry into the incident, and both India and Pakistan seem to be trying to de-escalate the worst outbreak in tension since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
BBC News - India 'provoked Kashmir clash after woman crossed LoC'
Top sources in the Union Home and defence ministries told DNA that the Pakistani attack was in all likelihood a retaliation for the attack carried out by 9 MLI.
The commander of the 161 brigade, stationed in the Churchunda sub-sector, Brigadier Gulab Singh Rawat, had decided to take a very aggressive posture. Sources said that he asked the commanding officer of 9 MLI to take proactive action, to launch a quick raid against a post that was harassing Indian positions.
The successful Indian raid led to the death of a Pakistaninon-commissioned officer and escalated tensions across the LoC.
Normally, such an escalation leads to the issuing of a formal alert from the Udhampur-based North Command of the army to all its formations. This alert should have gone out to all the three corps that it commands the Nagrota (Jammu) based 16 Corps, the Srinagar-based 15 Corps and the Leh-based 14 Corps.
Of these, 14 and 15 Corps are the most active as they man the LoC from Jammu right through to Kargil, from where 14 Corps takes over.
Incidentally, the neighbouring 12 Brigade in Uri had just seen a change of command after Brig RK Singh took over from Brig BS Raju. Any change of command of a major formation on the LoC is a sensitive time and troops are expected to be on high alert. The absence of the alert led to all the formations running things as business as usual. That was when the Pakistanis decided to retaliate in the Mendhar sector that is part of the northern Jammu region.
This area is manned by the 25th Division of the Indian Army and 13 Rajputana Rifles was one of the battalions manning this sector.
While army headquarters believes that the attack was carried out by men from the Baloch regiment, it has not ruled out the role of a team of the Special Service Group (SSG) which is part of the elite Pakistani Special Forces. Reports suggest that the attacking party was dressed in black dungarees usually preferred by the SSG.
Another intelligence input suggests that this could have been an attack carried out by irregulars from the LeT after its chief, Hafeez Saeed started raising Border Action Guards to attack Indian troop positions on the LoC. Indian intelligence experts have ruled out the attack as a major shift in policy on part of the Pakistani General Headquarters (GHC) in Rawalpindi.
We believe that this was a local action purely in retaliation of what the raid our troops carried out in the Uri sector, a senior intelligence official told DNA. The Union home ministry is also looking at the role played by Brig Rawat and whether his aggressive posture could have been avoided.
There is a feeling in the government that Brig Rawat has a very aggressive track record which could have escalated tensions on the LoC at a time when the nine-year-old ceasefire was holding up well. An inquiry into the incident has been ordered by Army Headquarters and a decision on Brig Rawat could also be taken in the coming days.
DNA exclusive: Uri commanders forceful retaliation led to beheadings? - India - DNA
10 January 2013 Last updated at 11:30 GMT
India 'provoked Kashmir clash after woman crossed LoC'
Two Indian newspapers have suggested the army may have provoked recent fatal clashes in the disputed Kashmir region.
The reports say commanders breached a ceasefire accord by ordering new observation posts on the dividing Line of Control (LoC) after a 70-year-old woman crossed it unhindered last year.
Two Indian soldiers died on Tuesday after what Delhi says was a Pakistani raid, days after Pakistan said one of its soldiers died in an Indian attack.
Both sides deny provoking the clashes.
'Aggressive',The Indian government has reacted with fury to what it says was a highly provocative raid by Pakistani forces earlier this week.But in a rare case of contradicting the army line, two Indian newspapers say the sudden spike in violence may instead have been provoked by its recent actions - and a grandmother deciding to join her family in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
According to The Hindu newspaper, after the 70 year-old woman managed to cross the LoC unhindered last September, alarmed Indian commanders responded by ordering new observation posts in the area - construction work that is barred under a 10-year-old ceasefire agreement between the two rivals.
Pakistan reportedly made its displeasure known, at first via a tannoy system across the relatively small gap between the two sides, and then by firing.On 6 January, an Indian commander known for his "very aggressive track record", according to Daily News and Analysis (DNA), decided to counter-attack resulting in a Pakistani soldier being killed.
Islamabad alleges that Indian troops also crossed the LoC in that attack - something Delhi denies.The Pakistanis then hit back with a raid across another border area on Tuesday morning, with India condemning their actions as "barbaric" and "inhuman" following reports the bodies of the two Indian soldiers who died had been mutilated.
Pakistan denies Indian accounts of what happened.
The DNA newspaper also says that Indian troops across the region did not receive the standard alert after the Sunday raid. Instead, other units were "running things as business as usual".
India's defence ministry spokesman Col Jagdish Dahiya denied any recent actions "could have provoked Pakistan".But he said there had been "routine maintenance of our fortifications" in the area where the fighting occurred last Sunday, near the village of Charonda.These were not new posts, he insisted, and so "this could not be considered a ceasefire violation".
There had been an Indian attack in the Charonda area on Sunday, he said, to "retaliate" for Pakistani firing on Indian positions.Asked about reports no alert had been given after this, he said procedures were being looked into but he could not comment further.The army is now carrying out an inquiry into the incident, and both India and Pakistan seem to be trying to de-escalate the worst outbreak in tension since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
BBC News - India 'provoked Kashmir clash after woman crossed LoC'
