As India hits back hard, Pak shows no sign of blinking
9 Oct 2014 5:41 AM IST
Of course, the Jammu part of the IB is called by the establishment in Pakistan as the ‘working boundary’.
In this part of the LoC and the IB where the Indian army and the Border Security Force (BSF) keep vigil, there is a sense of ‘triumphalism’. If one speaks to any member of the Indian army – at the top, in the middle or at the lowest level – one will get to hear the phraseology: ‘We are giving them back as good as we are getting.’
Senior army officials and experts say they do not see any sign of Pakistan blinking, even though on their side of the LoC there are more of civilian homesteads. In Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) there are also the training camps where the ‘good’ terrorists (Pakistan’s classification) are given the wherewithal to create mayhem in India.
But those are deep inside, out of the range of the mortars and machine-guns that are still being fired in this skirmish. The recently retired director general of military operations (DGMO), Lt Gen Vinode Bhatia said, ‘Our forces are targetting some of the known ‘launch-pads’ of the trained terrorists where they wait for the right moment for infiltration.’
He has given two compelling reasons that can explain why Pakistan is seemingly mindlessly firing on the Indian side. One of the rationales is of course the political uncertainty caused by the siege of Islamabad by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Canadian-Pakistan cleric Tahirul Qadri and his outfit Pakistan Awami Tehreek.
To add to the confusion, now, the Parliamentary Opposition’s jirga has empowered Asaf Ali Zardari to negotiate with these parties in an attempt to defuse the political wrangle. It can be safely said that the new Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, has taken this opportunity to put a stamp of authority of his own through this operation. In any case, Rawalpindi holds in its firm grasp the foreign policies dealing with India, the USA and Afghanistan.
The second rationale is the advancing deadline for the polls to the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). According to Bhatia, Pakistan cannot afford another largely peaceful, free and fair election in the state that could kill the ‘monster’ of terrorism, haunting the Valley for so long. So it is making an attempt to garner as much of international attention as possible.
Pakistan’s attempt is to show how the territory’s political future is still challenged. However, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan government’s diplomatic adviser, has called on India to give ‘peace a chance.’
In this part of the LoC and the IB where the Indian army and the Border Security Force (BSF) keep vigil, there is a sense of ‘triumphalism’. If one speaks to any member of the Indian army – at the top, in the middle or at the lowest level – one will get to hear the phraseology: ‘We are giving them back as good as we are getting.’
Senior army officials and experts say they do not see any sign of Pakistan blinking, even though on their side of the LoC there are more of civilian homesteads. In Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) there are also the training camps where the ‘good’ terrorists (Pakistan’s classification) are given the wherewithal to create mayhem in India.
But those are deep inside, out of the range of the mortars and machine-guns that are still being fired in this skirmish. The recently retired director general of military operations (DGMO), Lt Gen Vinode Bhatia said, ‘Our forces are targetting some of the known ‘launch-pads’ of the trained terrorists where they wait for the right moment for infiltration.’
He has given two compelling reasons that can explain why Pakistan is seemingly mindlessly firing on the Indian side. One of the rationales is of course the political uncertainty caused by the siege of Islamabad by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Canadian-Pakistan cleric Tahirul Qadri and his outfit Pakistan Awami Tehreek.
To add to the confusion, now, the Parliamentary Opposition’s jirga has empowered Asaf Ali Zardari to negotiate with these parties in an attempt to defuse the political wrangle. It can be safely said that the new Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, has taken this opportunity to put a stamp of authority of his own through this operation. In any case, Rawalpindi holds in its firm grasp the foreign policies dealing with India, the USA and Afghanistan.
The second rationale is the advancing deadline for the polls to the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). According to Bhatia, Pakistan cannot afford another largely peaceful, free and fair election in the state that could kill the ‘monster’ of terrorism, haunting the Valley for so long. So it is making an attempt to garner as much of international attention as possible.
Pakistan’s attempt is to show how the territory’s political future is still challenged. However, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan government’s diplomatic adviser, has called on India to give ‘peace a chance.’
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