India-Pakistan Border Drama: Seeking Answers

[BanglaBhoot]

By Sanjay Kumar

January 12, 2013

Over the last few years Indo-Pakistani ties had been improving greatly. Now, all the goodwill that had been built up over this time appears to have been eliminated by a “runaway grandma.”

The killing of two Indian soldiers at the Line of Control(LOC)— the line that separates two parts of Kashmir and acts as a de facto border between India and Pakistan— several days ago, has quickly revived animosity between the two nations. The episode actually began last Sunday when Pakistan said Indian troops had killed one of its troops and critically injured another in a “cross-border raid” that Delhi denied having made. Then, on Tuesday, New Delhi blamed Pakistani border guards for the brutal deaths of two Indian soldiers— one of whom had been beheaded—an allegation that Islamabad vehemently denied. This was followed two days later by the death of another Pakistani solider, which Islamabad says had not been provoked but India maintains happened when its troops returned fire after having been shot at.

Amidst this blame game the truth is lost, with the fog of war making it all but impossible to ascertain which side is at fault. This doesn’t make passion on both sides any less intense as evidenced by many Indian news outlets challenging the very raison d'etre of holding peace talks with Pakistan.

A notable exception is The Hindu which, after carefully constructing the events leading up to this week, is actually blaming Delhi for violating the ceasefire agreement at the LoC. A front page article the paper ran late this week reconstructs the events leading up to the deaths through accounts given to it by unnamed army officials. It writes that in early September a 70-year old Indian woman crossed over the border to spend her final days with her children, who had crossed the borders years earlier to escape prosecution for border smuggling. This woman’s border crossing brought vulnerabilities in the LoC to the attention of Indian troops, who began constructing border outposts in violation of the 2003 LoC ceasefire agreement as a means of addressing these vulnerabilities.

Not surprisingly, Pakistani troops protested the violation of the ceasefire and demanded that construction of the border posts cease immediately. Those calls went unheeded. As a result, in October Pakistani troops began firing on the new outposts with mortar fire and automatic weapons, missing all Indian troops but killing three nearby villagers, the oldest of whom was 25-years-old while the youngest was in ninth grade, according to The Hindu.

Things remained tense after that with the two sides occasionally exchanging fire. After one such exchange on January 6 an Indian commander, Gulab Singh Rawat, sought and obtained permission to take aggressive action against Pakistan troops that were targeting the soldiers under his command. The result was Tuesday’s killing of a Pakistani border guard, with another one being critically injured.

Pakistan has proposed establishing a UN-monitored probe to investigate the incident. India has refused. Meanwhile, Thursday’s brutal killing of two Indian soldiers has provoked outrage throughout most the country.

There is some reason for optimism, however. Notably, even while giving the Pakistani envoy in the country a “dressing down,” members of the government have sought to calm passions at home, with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid arguing, "We cannot and must not allow escalation of this very unwholesome event that has taken place.”

His Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khan welcomed the statement.

This makes the media’s role in whipping up public angry all the more condemnable. These actions only impede a return to normalcy which is in every person in India and Pakistan’s interest. This is especially true of India given that the stability of South Asia and how well it manages its neighborhood will go a long way towards determining its standing in the world.

In many ways, people’s anger over these tragic deaths is understandable. The media has a responsibility to help rein in this anger lest it lead to further escalation and more tragedies. In this role it is failing miserably and it is time for it to reserve course.

India-Pakistan Border Drama: Seeking Answers

 

[BanglaBhoot]

A New Conflict in Kashmir?

Ahmed Rashid

For nearly a decade, despite constant tensions—and even large-scale terrorist violence—between Pakistan and India, there is one thing the two nuclear-armed states have kept largely intact: their 2003 cease-fire agreement in Kashmir. Over the past week, however, that agreement has suddenly seemed in danger of unraveling, with alarming killings along the defacto border between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir and threats of further escalation by senior officials on both sides. Though it has until now received little attention in the international press, this new confrontation poses a grave threat to the entire region. We ignore it at our peril.

The escalation began on January 6, when Indian forces intruded into Pakistani territory, killing one Pakistani solider and wounding another. Two days later, Pakistani forces retaliated by crossing the Line of Control (LoC), the military line separating Indian-controlled Kashmir from Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, and killing two Indian soldiers. According to Indian officials, the Pakistani intruders beheaded one of the soldiers, carrying away the head, and mutilated the bodies of both. Since these events, heavy artillery shelling has taken place every day, and on January 10, another Pakistani soldier was killed by Indian fire.

In the days since these events, the Indian and Pakistani governments have been trading counter-accusations—accompanied by threats of further attacks. On Monday, Indian army chief Bikram Singh alleged that the beheading of the Indian soldier had been “premeditated” by the Pakistani military and said that “we reserve the right to retaliate at a time and place of our choosing.” Both sides have vowed not to turn the issue into an international crisis, but with the rain of abuse each side is now heaping on the other—amplified by widespread press coverage in both countries—there appears to be little room to end the standoff and pursue an impartial investigation of what triggered the fighting.

The violence is particularly disturbing because Kashmir has long been one of the most explosive issues between the two countries. After three wars and decades of tension over the LoC, a relative peace was achieved in 2003 when the governments of Pakistan’s former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf and India’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party entered into a cease-fire.

Remarkably, that agreement has stuck until now, despite the vicious terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008 in which 164 people were killed by members of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), based in Lahore, and the growing number of militants, including LeT members, along the Line of Control. But on January 10, LeT leader Hafiz Saeed said that, while his group did not want further escalation, it would fight back if Indian troops again crossed over the LoC. Lashkar militants have close ties to Pakistani military intelligence and have become increasingly powerful under the Pakistan’s weak-kneed current government, led by the Peoples Party. Members of the group have held public rallies, appeared on television, and continued to threaten Pakistan and neighboring states, including India.

There is intense speculation as to why either side may want to violate the cease-fire now. The Indian media claims that the Pakistan army is trying to divert attention from the troubles it faces at home, a tactic to avoid criticizing its fundamentalist allies and facing up to the extremists who are tearing Pakistan apart. Some Indian analysts also suggest that the killings were carried out by LeT militants disguised as Pakistani soldiers.

For its part, the Pakistani press says much the same about India—arguing that the badly run Congress government, facing multiple corruption scandals, desperately needs a public distraction from its own problems. Pakistani commentators suggest that some officers in the Indian army have never accepted the LoC, and the Indian press itself has mentioned that the initial killing of the Pakistani could have been carried out by a hard-line Indian officer and his men acting against orders.

The escalation is dangerous for several reasons. Firstly, both countries have been tentatively moving toward rapprochement, with trade and visa-issuing deals that have created closer economic ties for the first time since the early 1960s. At least a dozen Indian investment houses are looking to invest in Pakistan, according to Pakistani officials, as soon as Islamabad allows Indians to invest in the country.

India had long argued that trade and cross-border travel must be eased and Pakistan must crack down on groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba before core issues like Kashmir can be tackled. In recent months, the Pakistanis finally seem to have agreed to closer economic ties, but Pakistan is frustrated that India is still not budging on talking about the larger political issues, including not only Kashmir but other border disputes, the unresolved status of the Siachen Glacier region—an undemarcated border area in the Himalayas just northeast of the point where the Line of Control ends—and above all a continuing battle over the distribution of water resources from rivers that originate in the Himalayas and serve both nations.

The current crisis has also been fueled by Indian frustration with the Pakistan army’s refusal to hand over the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and recognize that Pakistani groups were responsible. Indian officials have said privately that their patience has run out, that they cannot move forward on anything beyond trade until Pakistan takes steps to resolve the Mumbai situation. And on Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned Pakistan that it “cannot be business as usual” with Pakistani acts of terror.

The Pakistani army, meanwhile, has offered no hint about what it wants to do with groups like LeT. As long as they are allowed to organize and act freely, they can hold the peace process hostage: a single major act of terrorism could undo all the progress made so far. The overriding concern of the government should be to avoid such a calamity.

The greater danger is that both countries are armed with nuclear weapons and have the means to deliver them, including short-range rockets and miniaturized nuclear bombs that can carry warheads to smaller targets.

The two armies have been using a telephone hotline established some years ago in order to cool down tensions. UN forces have been stationed in Kashmir since 1948 but have always remained neutral and do not pass verdicts on incidents of violence. The two foreign ministers have been in touch but there has been until now little pulling back.

Clearly the two sides urgently need to reopen a dialogue. Pakistan must address the Mumbai attacks and own up to the involvement of LeT in those attacks, while India must recognize that refusing to talk about the underlying disputes only strengthens the hand of Pakistani extremists and the army, further weakening the civilian government in Islamabad. The next time this kind of violence erupts in Kashmir, it may be too late.

A New Conflict in Kashmir? by Ahmed Rashid | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

 

[nForce]

Why are you quoting these Munshi? They are none of your concern.We will deal with whatever is happening at our western borders.Our forefathers gave yours a country to live.Be content with it.No need for you to be extra-inquisitive.No need for you to ask questions,seek answers.

 

[The Green1]

So the problem is with Indian military personel who dont agree to LOC. Building up of walls shows the true intent of india.
I expect Indian forces not to be foolish and start any misadventure at this point when Pakistan is going through tough times because you never know how Pakistan will retalliate

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Why are you quoting these Munshi? They are none of your concern.We will deal with whatever is happening at our western borders.Our forefathers gave yours a country to live.Be content with it.No need for you to be extra-inquisitive.No need for you to ask questions,seek answers.

We in Bangladesh face a similar problem as Pakistan with Indians causing trouble on our borders. These articles are posted in sympathy and support to Pakistan in their fight against Indian aggression.

 

[sreekimpact]

We in Bangladesh face a similar problem as Pakistan with Indians causing trouble on our borders. These articles are posted in sympathy and support to Pakistan in their fight against Indian aggression.

your PM doesn't think so

'Almost no border disputes' with India, says Bangladeshi PM Hasina

`Almost no border disputes` with India, says Bangladeshi PM Hasina

Almost no border disputes with India, says Sheikh Hasina - Indian Express

 

[Icewolf]

We in Bangladesh face a similar problem as Pakistan with Indians causing trouble on our borders. These articles are posted in sympathy and support to Pakistan in their fight against Indian aggression.

Thank you brother for your kind words..

When the Indians get slapped back on their face they start crying..
I bet tomorrow Pak Army will kill a Indian soldier and then back to crying & whining for Indian media and govt.

 

[nForce]

We in Bangladesh face a similar problem as Pakistan with Indians causing trouble on our borders. These articles are posted in sympathy and support to Pakistan in their fight against Indian aggression.

Indian aggression ehh? well whats the point in seeking answers when you have already made up your mind? What is the meaning of this elaborate caricature?

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Indian aggression ehh? well whats the point in seeking answers when you have already made up your mind? What is the meaning of this elaborate caricature?

The articles clearly show that India is the aggressor ....

 

[KRAIT]

The articles clearly show that India is the aggressor ....

This woman’s border crossing brought vulnerabilities in the LoC to the attention of Indian troops, who began constructing border outposts in violation of the 2003 LoC ceasefire agreement as a means of addressing these vulnerabilities.

Not surprisingly, Pakistani troops protested the violation of the ceasefire and demanded that construction of the border posts cease immediately. Those calls went unheeded. As a result, in October Pakistani troops began firing on the new outposts with mortar fire and automatic weapons, missing all Indian troops but killing three nearby villagers, the oldest of whom was 25-years-old while the youngest was in ninth grade, according to The Hindu.

Things remained tense after that with the two sides occasionally exchanging fire. After one such exchange on January 6 an Indian commander, Gulab Singh Rawat, sought and obtained permission to take aggressive action against Pakistan troops that were targeting the soldiers under his command. The result was Tuesday’s killing of a Pakistani border guard, with another one being critically injured.

Pakistan has proposed establishing a UN-monitored probe to investigate the incident. India has refused. Meanwhile, Thursday’s brutal killing of two Indian soldiers has provoked outrage throughout most the country.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/centra...rder-drama-seeking-answers.html#ixzz2I6t7Zuxo

 

[third eye]

Firstly, its not a ' drama' and I resent the word being used for professional interactions between soldiers. The author has no business to refer to the action by those in the profession of arms in this manner.

Next, no where in the world have two armies faced each other across minefields for 65 years. Such acts are bound to happen and should not be made much of beyond a point.

Further, to find ways to pre empt such acts there is a greater need for army to army interaction at lower levels where events can be stopped from spiraling.

If politicians could solve problems there would n't be any left in the world.

 

[nForce]

The articles clearly show that India is the aggressor ....

The same article can be re-written to show Fiji as the real culprit,it does not matter.The thing is,you would not have quoted that to start the thread unless you agreed with it.There are many other articles flying around in the internet that says Pakistan is the aggressor.I did not see any of them being quoted by you.
So,coming back to the basic question,if you are biased to begin with,then whats the point in asking questions ? You dont need convincing,for you are already convinced,may be merely asking others to sympathize with you.In that case,stop asking questions and change the thread title.Be what you are and ask what you want.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

The same article can be re-written to show Fiji as the real culprit,it does not matter.The thing is,you would not have quoted that to start the thread unless you agreed with it.There are many other articles flying around in the internet that says Pakistan is the aggressor.I did not see any of them being quoted by you.
So,coming back to the basic question,if you are biased to begin with,then whats the point in asking questions ? You dont need convincing,for you are already convinced,may be merely asking others to sympathize with you.In that case,stop asking questions and change the thread title.Be what you are and ask what you want.

The article clearly points out that The Hindu puts blame squarely on India for instigating the present round of hostilities .....

The second article states -

"The escalation began on January 6, when Indian forces intruded into Pakistani territory, killing one Pakistani solider and wounding another."

 

[anilindia]

We in Bangladesh face a similar problem as Pakistan with Indians causing trouble on our borders. These articles are posted in sympathy and support to Pakistan in their fight against Indian aggression.

You have sympathy also in 71 when pakistan army was carrying operation in bangladesh ??
Just asking..

 

[third eye]

The article clearly points out that The Hindu puts blame squarely on India for instigating the present round of hostilities .....

The second article states -

"The escalation began on January 6, when Indian forces intruded into Pakistani territory, killing one Pakistani solider and wounding another."

For gods sake make yourself abreast with what the LOC is and how things happen there.

Firing is routine and happens all the time - its been that way as long as one can remember.

Its the beheading which is causing the angst.

Last year alone there must have been over 1000 violations, none of them snowballed. This time, the nation has been sensitized by the media and things have got hot.