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BRIEFING - JAMMU AND KASHMIR, ON THE LINE OF FIRE
JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY
DATE: 16-Sep-1998
EDITION: 1998
VOLUME/ISSUE: 030/011
BY LINE:
Rahul Bedi
INTRODUCTION:
The line of control in Kashmir is one of the world's 'hottest'
borders. Rahul Bedi reports from Indian Army outposts on the
frontier
TEXT:
For thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers sheltering in bunkers
on opposite sides of one of the world's "hottest" borders, the noise
of machine-gun fire is broken for several hours each day by a
deadlier fire from 120mm, 81mm and 82mm mortar, grenades, rockets
and artillery shells.
Across the 776km line of control (LoC) dividing the state of Jammu
and Kashmir between
India and Pakistan, armed forces from these two
new nuclear weapon states exchanged more than 400,000 rounds of
ammunition in June alone.
"India and Pakistan are neither at peace nor at war along the LoC,"
says Indian Army Col M S Kauchhur, officer in charge of much of the
LoC in the Rajouri sector. "Any mistake by either side can lead to
fatal consequences." Both sides traded artillery fire for nearly 10
days in July, when about 100 people died on either side. Hundreds of
villagers fleeing their homes in Indian-administered Kashmir to
relief camps described the firing as a "full-scale engagement".
Meanwhile, damaged bunkers, some less than 50m apart, hacked out of
sheer mountain slopes or dug into flat riverbeds, are repaired under
cover of darkness. Stealth determines survival as Indian and
Pakistani snipers stand guard on either side. "We are involved in a
hazardous battle of wits along the LoC, where one false step can be
the last," says Indian Lt Col A K Shukla, commanding officer at the
Nangi Tekri post overlooking Pakistan-held Kashmir at a height of
around 5,500ft (1,676m). "We operate like we would in a war zone."
Other officers manning over 208km of the LoC in the Rajouri sector
say that since January, India and Pakistan have exchanged 1.53
million rounds or about 8,500 rounds daily. Both countries have also
deployed more troops along the border. Military officers at Rajouri
claim that the fire from the Pakistani side is cover for the
infiltration of armed Islamic militants into the state to bolster
their nine-year-old war for independence in which 18,000 people have
died. According to the officers, Afghan, Sudanese and Pakistani
mercenaries, armed and trained by Pakistan's Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI), regularly cross the LoC at dusk, under covering
fire that enables them to reach bases inside Indian-held Kashmir.
"We are tied down all the time by the influx of militants," says one
officer, adding that the local topography "defies" sealing the
border and even if soldiers stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the
LoC, infiltration could not be prevented. The Indian Army declines
to reveal the number of soldiers deployed along the LoC or the
number of soldiers killed in firing, but official figures put the
number of army and federal paramilitary personnel killed in internal
security duty since 1989 at 1,442.
Until two years ago, militants used Rajouri and neighbouring Poonch district merely as a transit route into the Kashmir Valley from mountain passes in the Pir Panjal ranges. However, over the past years, they have built up bases in
the area in a bid to pin down Indian security forces through "hit-and-run" raids on their bases.
Consequently, the Rashtriya Rifles, or National Rifles (RR), a
paramilitary force exclusively dedicated to combating insurgency,
has been deployed into the Surankot area about 100km east of
Rajouri. Raised in the early 1990s, RR battalions have been deployed
in other parts of Kashmir for over six years to relieve the army
from internal security duties and enable it to effectively man the
LoC.
Better equipped than regular troops, the RR draws its personnel from
the army and trains them at the counter-insurgency warfare school in
Mizoram in the northeast. They are armed with imported night-vision
systems and anti-mine devices, mortars and medium and heavy machine guns.
Indian intelligence officials say the ISI has assembled a new force,
the Harkat-ul-Jehad-Islamee Tanzeem, or Holy Islamic Army,
comprising foreign mercenaries operating under a unified command to
bolster militancy in the Rajouri region. Feared for their fighting
capabilities and ruthlessness, these mercenaries have disarmed local
Kashmiri insurgents, confining them to menial, non-combative tasks
and "appreciably raised attrition levels", say officials.
An army intelligence officer says that between 250 and 275 militants
operating in groups of three or four and armed with assault rifles,
grenades and launchers, sniper rifles and long- range,
high-frequency radio are now permanently stationed on the Indian
side of the LoC around Rajouri. Intelligence officials said that
these men were directing Pakistani artillery fire on to Indian
posts. By keeping to the forests and high mountain ranges, the
militants retain an edge over the less mobile army.
The ISI reportedly pays each militant a monthly salary depending on
training and experience. It is claimed that the highest paid are the
Afghans, many veterans of the war against the Soviet occupation
forces, followed by those from Pakistan-held Kashmir. Locally
trained militants earn the least. Interrogations of captured
insurgents has revealed that families of dead militants are also
compensated by the ISI. India estimates that the ISI has spent
between R600 million and R800 million ($14 million to $19 million)
annually funding insurgents.
However, Pakistan denies sponsoring Kashmiri militants, saying it
merely retaliates to Indian "belligerence" along the LoC. It also
claims to offer Kashmiri militants only diplomatic and moral
support. The LoC was introduced in 1972 after a third war between
India and Pakistan in 1971. Before that, it was known as the
ceasefire line. Senior Indian Army officers say the LoC was quiet
after the 1971 war with occasional flag meetings between picket
commanders. However, the erosion of Kashmir's special status under
the Indian Constitution by successive state governments and federal
interference led to resentment and an armed rebellion in 1989. Then,
the LoC became "highly active" as militants from Pakistan- held
Kashmir joined the insurgency.
Militants in Indian-held Kashmir along with Pakistan are calling for
a UN-supervised plebiscite on self-determination, something which
India promised 50 years ago but has never held.
The first group of seven UN observers arrived in Kashmir in January
1949 to supervise the ceasefire line. They played an active role
until 1971 but, since the 1972 Shimla Agreement, India has refused
to recognise the UN Military Observer Group on India and Pakistan
(UNMOGIP), declining to brief them on troop deployment or lodge any
complaints with them on cross-border firing or other violations by
Pakistan. It continues, however, to provide accommodation,
hospitality and transport for the observers.
Nevertheless, Pakistan regularly lodges complaints about ceasefire
violations with the UNMOGIP, whose headquarters alternates between
Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar, from May to October and
Rawalpindi in Pakistan for the winter months. Field observation
teams also maintain offices in Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch, Baramulla and
Kargil in India and at Sialkot, Bhimbar, Kotli, Rawla Kot, Domel,
Astor and Skardu in Pakistan. Although there have been demands by
some Indian political parties to terminate the UNMOGIP, it can only
be withdrawn after a Security Council decision.
Foreign office officials in New Delhi estimate that the UN has spent over $100
million financing the UNMOGIP, despite having no Indian recognition
for 26 years. There are currently 44 observers from eight countries
in the UNMOGIP.
Almost a decade after it lapsed into disuse, the hotline between the
two prime ministers was activated last May in a bid to defuse
tension after both sides exchanged heavy artillery fire for several
days amid conflicting reports of casualties. This hotline adds to
the communication link already set up in the mid-1980s between the
director-generals of military operations in India and Pakistan. It
is used when cross-border firing intensifies.
Last year, the two countries held three rounds of peace talks and
agreed to set up joint working groups to deal with several
contentious issues, including Kashmir.
However, further talks were postponed after Pakistan insisted on
predicating all outstanding matters on the settlement of Kashmir.
India had advocated discussing contentious issues such as trade,
visa restrictions and people-to-people contact, hoping it would
ultimately lead to a congenial atmosphere in which Kashmir, too,
could be discussed.
At talks held in Sri Lanka at the end of July, both sides accused
each other of exacerbating firing along the LoC. It was hoped that
the talks between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his
Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif would lead to the resumption of
peace negotiations. However, Indian officials described Pakistan's
"obsessive focus" on Kashmir as "neurotic", while Pakistan said
India was "rigid and inflexible".
Sharif said Kashmir was the "core issue" and, until that was
resolved, no progress was possible on other issues such as maritime
boundaries, easing visa restrictions and controlling drug smuggling.
He added that the "nuclearisation" of South Asia had added another
dimension to regional security concerns.
Gohar Ayub Khan, Pakistan's then foreign minister, warned of a
nuclear war over Kashmir. He said the disputed state was a "flash
point" that could erupt any time. He added that unlike the Cold War
in Europe, where no territorial disputes were involved, Kashmir was
an "open wound". Pakistan has also refused India's offer of a "no
first nuclear strike" pledge, pending a settlement of the Kashmir
dispute.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Vajpayee said talks between India
and Pakistan were "moving forward" after meetings between senior
officials of the two countries on the sidelines of the recent
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference in Durban, South Africa. "The
modalities of the dialogue have been drawn up and all issues
including Kashmir will be discussed at the bilateral level without
any third-party intervention," said Vajpayee on his return from
Durban. Officials said the details of the bilateral talks will be
announced after Vajpayee meets Sharif at the UN General Assembly
session in New York later this month.
Security officials, however, said any future dialogue between the
two neighbours would falter over Kashmir. "Mutual suspicion over
Kashmir and the stand-off over nuclear weapons makes negotiations
difficult, if not impossible," said a security official, declining
to be named. "Pakistan cannot give up its demand for Kashmir and
India cannot give up the state," he said. China's involvement in the
complicated wrangling makes things more unworkable, he added.
Meanwhile, US-led Western countries have called on India and
Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute urgently. Richard Celeste,
US ambassador to India, recently said the two neighbours were
"closer to war" than the former Soviet Union and the USA ever were
during the Cold War because their weapons were within minutes of
each other's capitals and there was firing almost daily on the
Kashmir LoC.
-Rahul Bedi is JDW's Delhi-based correspondent
JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY
DATE: 16-Sep-1998
EDITION: 1998
VOLUME/ISSUE: 030/011
BY LINE:
Rahul Bedi
INTRODUCTION:
The line of control in Kashmir is one of the world's 'hottest'
borders. Rahul Bedi reports from Indian Army outposts on the
frontier
TEXT:
For thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers sheltering in bunkers
on opposite sides of one of the world's "hottest" borders, the noise
of machine-gun fire is broken for several hours each day by a
deadlier fire from 120mm, 81mm and 82mm mortar, grenades, rockets
and artillery shells.
Across the 776km line of control (LoC) dividing the state of Jammu
and Kashmir between
India and Pakistan, armed forces from these two
new nuclear weapon states exchanged more than 400,000 rounds of
ammunition in June alone.
"India and Pakistan are neither at peace nor at war along the LoC,"
says Indian Army Col M S Kauchhur, officer in charge of much of the
LoC in the Rajouri sector. "Any mistake by either side can lead to
fatal consequences." Both sides traded artillery fire for nearly 10
days in July, when about 100 people died on either side. Hundreds of
villagers fleeing their homes in Indian-administered Kashmir to
relief camps described the firing as a "full-scale engagement".
Meanwhile, damaged bunkers, some less than 50m apart, hacked out of
sheer mountain slopes or dug into flat riverbeds, are repaired under
cover of darkness. Stealth determines survival as Indian and
Pakistani snipers stand guard on either side. "We are involved in a
hazardous battle of wits along the LoC, where one false step can be
the last," says Indian Lt Col A K Shukla, commanding officer at the
Nangi Tekri post overlooking Pakistan-held Kashmir at a height of
around 5,500ft (1,676m). "We operate like we would in a war zone."
Other officers manning over 208km of the LoC in the Rajouri sector
say that since January, India and Pakistan have exchanged 1.53
million rounds or about 8,500 rounds daily. Both countries have also
deployed more troops along the border. Military officers at Rajouri
claim that the fire from the Pakistani side is cover for the
infiltration of armed Islamic militants into the state to bolster
their nine-year-old war for independence in which 18,000 people have
died. According to the officers, Afghan, Sudanese and Pakistani
mercenaries, armed and trained by Pakistan's Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI), regularly cross the LoC at dusk, under covering
fire that enables them to reach bases inside Indian-held Kashmir.
"We are tied down all the time by the influx of militants," says one
officer, adding that the local topography "defies" sealing the
border and even if soldiers stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the
LoC, infiltration could not be prevented. The Indian Army declines
to reveal the number of soldiers deployed along the LoC or the
number of soldiers killed in firing, but official figures put the
number of army and federal paramilitary personnel killed in internal
security duty since 1989 at 1,442.
Until two years ago, militants used Rajouri and neighbouring Poonch district merely as a transit route into the Kashmir Valley from mountain passes in the Pir Panjal ranges. However, over the past years, they have built up bases in
the area in a bid to pin down Indian security forces through "hit-and-run" raids on their bases.
Consequently, the Rashtriya Rifles, or National Rifles (RR), a
paramilitary force exclusively dedicated to combating insurgency,
has been deployed into the Surankot area about 100km east of
Rajouri. Raised in the early 1990s, RR battalions have been deployed
in other parts of Kashmir for over six years to relieve the army
from internal security duties and enable it to effectively man the
LoC.
Better equipped than regular troops, the RR draws its personnel from
the army and trains them at the counter-insurgency warfare school in
Mizoram in the northeast. They are armed with imported night-vision
systems and anti-mine devices, mortars and medium and heavy machine guns.
Indian intelligence officials say the ISI has assembled a new force,
the Harkat-ul-Jehad-Islamee Tanzeem, or Holy Islamic Army,
comprising foreign mercenaries operating under a unified command to
bolster militancy in the Rajouri region. Feared for their fighting
capabilities and ruthlessness, these mercenaries have disarmed local
Kashmiri insurgents, confining them to menial, non-combative tasks
and "appreciably raised attrition levels", say officials.
An army intelligence officer says that between 250 and 275 militants
operating in groups of three or four and armed with assault rifles,
grenades and launchers, sniper rifles and long- range,
high-frequency radio are now permanently stationed on the Indian
side of the LoC around Rajouri. Intelligence officials said that
these men were directing Pakistani artillery fire on to Indian
posts. By keeping to the forests and high mountain ranges, the
militants retain an edge over the less mobile army.
The ISI reportedly pays each militant a monthly salary depending on
training and experience. It is claimed that the highest paid are the
Afghans, many veterans of the war against the Soviet occupation
forces, followed by those from Pakistan-held Kashmir. Locally
trained militants earn the least. Interrogations of captured
insurgents has revealed that families of dead militants are also
compensated by the ISI. India estimates that the ISI has spent
between R600 million and R800 million ($14 million to $19 million)
annually funding insurgents.
However, Pakistan denies sponsoring Kashmiri militants, saying it
merely retaliates to Indian "belligerence" along the LoC. It also
claims to offer Kashmiri militants only diplomatic and moral
support. The LoC was introduced in 1972 after a third war between
India and Pakistan in 1971. Before that, it was known as the
ceasefire line. Senior Indian Army officers say the LoC was quiet
after the 1971 war with occasional flag meetings between picket
commanders. However, the erosion of Kashmir's special status under
the Indian Constitution by successive state governments and federal
interference led to resentment and an armed rebellion in 1989. Then,
the LoC became "highly active" as militants from Pakistan- held
Kashmir joined the insurgency.
Militants in Indian-held Kashmir along with Pakistan are calling for
a UN-supervised plebiscite on self-determination, something which
India promised 50 years ago but has never held.
The first group of seven UN observers arrived in Kashmir in January
1949 to supervise the ceasefire line. They played an active role
until 1971 but, since the 1972 Shimla Agreement, India has refused
to recognise the UN Military Observer Group on India and Pakistan
(UNMOGIP), declining to brief them on troop deployment or lodge any
complaints with them on cross-border firing or other violations by
Pakistan. It continues, however, to provide accommodation,
hospitality and transport for the observers.
Nevertheless, Pakistan regularly lodges complaints about ceasefire
violations with the UNMOGIP, whose headquarters alternates between
Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar, from May to October and
Rawalpindi in Pakistan for the winter months. Field observation
teams also maintain offices in Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch, Baramulla and
Kargil in India and at Sialkot, Bhimbar, Kotli, Rawla Kot, Domel,
Astor and Skardu in Pakistan. Although there have been demands by
some Indian political parties to terminate the UNMOGIP, it can only
be withdrawn after a Security Council decision.
Foreign office officials in New Delhi estimate that the UN has spent over $100
million financing the UNMOGIP, despite having no Indian recognition
for 26 years. There are currently 44 observers from eight countries
in the UNMOGIP.
Almost a decade after it lapsed into disuse, the hotline between the
two prime ministers was activated last May in a bid to defuse
tension after both sides exchanged heavy artillery fire for several
days amid conflicting reports of casualties. This hotline adds to
the communication link already set up in the mid-1980s between the
director-generals of military operations in India and Pakistan. It
is used when cross-border firing intensifies.
Last year, the two countries held three rounds of peace talks and
agreed to set up joint working groups to deal with several
contentious issues, including Kashmir.
However, further talks were postponed after Pakistan insisted on
predicating all outstanding matters on the settlement of Kashmir.
India had advocated discussing contentious issues such as trade,
visa restrictions and people-to-people contact, hoping it would
ultimately lead to a congenial atmosphere in which Kashmir, too,
could be discussed.
At talks held in Sri Lanka at the end of July, both sides accused
each other of exacerbating firing along the LoC. It was hoped that
the talks between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his
Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif would lead to the resumption of
peace negotiations. However, Indian officials described Pakistan's
"obsessive focus" on Kashmir as "neurotic", while Pakistan said
India was "rigid and inflexible".
Sharif said Kashmir was the "core issue" and, until that was
resolved, no progress was possible on other issues such as maritime
boundaries, easing visa restrictions and controlling drug smuggling.
He added that the "nuclearisation" of South Asia had added another
dimension to regional security concerns.
Gohar Ayub Khan, Pakistan's then foreign minister, warned of a
nuclear war over Kashmir. He said the disputed state was a "flash
point" that could erupt any time. He added that unlike the Cold War
in Europe, where no territorial disputes were involved, Kashmir was
an "open wound". Pakistan has also refused India's offer of a "no
first nuclear strike" pledge, pending a settlement of the Kashmir
dispute.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Vajpayee said talks between India
and Pakistan were "moving forward" after meetings between senior
officials of the two countries on the sidelines of the recent
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference in Durban, South Africa. "The
modalities of the dialogue have been drawn up and all issues
including Kashmir will be discussed at the bilateral level without
any third-party intervention," said Vajpayee on his return from
Durban. Officials said the details of the bilateral talks will be
announced after Vajpayee meets Sharif at the UN General Assembly
session in New York later this month.
Security officials, however, said any future dialogue between the
two neighbours would falter over Kashmir. "Mutual suspicion over
Kashmir and the stand-off over nuclear weapons makes negotiations
difficult, if not impossible," said a security official, declining
to be named. "Pakistan cannot give up its demand for Kashmir and
India cannot give up the state," he said. China's involvement in the
complicated wrangling makes things more unworkable, he added.
Meanwhile, US-led Western countries have called on India and
Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute urgently. Richard Celeste,
US ambassador to India, recently said the two neighbours were
"closer to war" than the former Soviet Union and the USA ever were
during the Cold War because their weapons were within minutes of
each other's capitals and there was firing almost daily on the
Kashmir LoC.
-Rahul Bedi is JDW's Delhi-based correspondent
