Hard times for Kashmir

In an unfortunate development, the Indian Army on Monday said a Pakistan border action team (BAT) of Army regulars had mutilated the bodies of two soldiers killed during "unprovoked" exchange of fire near the Line of Control. " Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said the Indian government "strongly condemns" the incident. "This is a reprehensible and inhumane act; such attacks don't even take place during war, let alone peace. Bodies of soldiers being mutilated is an extreme form of barbaric act. The country has full confidence and faith in armed forces which will react appropriately. The sacrifice of these two soldiers won't go in vain," he said. Both the Pakistani military and the civilian establishment have denied these allegations. The soldiers were killed in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir, 200 meters from the Line of Control (LoC). Reports indicate that armed forces from both sides of the border have exchanged heavy fire in the Krishna Ghati sector on a regular basis since March.

" Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said the Indian government "strongly condemns" the incident. "This is a reprehensible and inhumane act; such attacks don't even take place during war, let alone peace. Bodies of soldiers being mutilated is an extreme form of barbaric act. The country has full confidence and faith in armed forces which will react appropriately. The sacrifice of these two soldiers won't go in vain," he said. Both the Pakistani military and the civilian establishment have denied these allegations. The soldiers were killed in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir, 200 meters from the Line of Control (LoC). Reports indicate that armed forces from both sides of the border have exchanged heavy fire in the Krishna Ghati sector on a regular basis since March.

The Indian armed forces have sought to counter desperate attempts by the Pakistani establishment to infiltrate jihadists through the southern stretches of the LoC. With no positive developments emerging out of talks between Directors General of Military Operation (DGMO) of both countries, there is no doubt that the Indian armed forces will respond in kind. Beyond these concerns, however, are the unfortunate political implications of these dastardly beheadings. Whenever an Indian soldier is beheaded or his body mutilated, it becomes politically impossible for New Delhi to push for dialogue with Islamabad, considering the public outrage such dastardly acts entail. It's not as if both countries were anywhere near engaging in productive dialogue in the past year.

Through these recent beheadings, however, both the Pakistani civilian administration in Islamabad and military establishment based out of Rawalpindi, are trying to exacerbate the volatile atmosphere in Kashmir Valley further. Is it any coincidence that a day before the beheadings, Pakistan's chief of army staff (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa pledged his country's support for what he called the "political struggle of the Kashmiris' right to self-determination"? There is seemingly a sinister game plan at play here. Evidently, the Pakistan army chief's message was meant for violent separatist elements in the Valley and the assurance that his armed forces will back them in their fight against the India.

The beheadings are a message in that direction, besides raising the clamour in mainland India for harsher military action against protesting Kashmiri youth. If New Delhi does opt for intense military action as it has done in the past, one is sure that instances of unintended or provoked excesses against unarmed Kashmiri youth, further triggering the unending cycle of violence in the Valley. With independence for Kashmir out of question as far as New Delhi is concerned, Pakistan's sinister plan in taking the Valley back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when militancy was its peak, seems to be playing out.

"Television clips of schoolchildren including girls taking to streets against troops had lately prompted saner civil society voices to advocate dialogue to cool things down. Among them was former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha who led a Track-2 initiative in the restive State. It's that element of sanity the Pakistani atrocity on the LoC has sought to kill by mauling dead soldiers. The beheading of Indian soldiers is another shot in the arm for hawks and a fatal blow for peaceniks. Waging peace looks an impossible idea in our increasingly jingoistic milieu," laments Vinod Sharma, a senior Indian journalist, in a recent column.

For all of Islamabad's talk of New Delhi "scuttling" all opportunities for a "meaningful" dialogue to resolve the issue, it needs to ask questions of Rawalpindi. India's position on the subject is rather clear—no dialogue until terror remains Pakistan's instrument of strategic policy. Wasn't it militants from the Rawalpindi-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad that conducted the attack on the Pathankot airbase in January 2016 just days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore? What about the horrific terror attack on September 18, 2016, when an Indian army installation in Uri, Kashmir, came under attack, resulting in the death of 19 soldiers? New Delhi's response with a 'surgical strike' later that month across the Line of Control apparently did little to deter Rawalpindi. Instead, it escalated matters further, with the beheading of two more Indian soldiers in November 2016.

The result is renewed hostilities on the LoC leading to high casualties on both sides.

Compounding matters is the potential role of China in emboldening the Pakistani military establishment further in the region. Stakes are high in PoK, in particular with the $46-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. "Given the massive investment that China has made in countries along the One Belt, One Road, China now has a vested interest in helping resolve regional conflicts including the dispute over Kashmir between India and Pakistan," an article in the Beijing-backed tabloid Global Times said.

In other words, the CPEC has opened up India-controlled Kashmir to China. With Sino-India relations hitting new lows recently, the potential for Chinese interference is great. How does India counter-strategise from here? The Modi government has a lot on its plate—public discontentment in Kashmir, Pakistan's insidious attempts to vitiate the atmosphere further and facilitate the movement of terrorists in the Valley, and China's possible attempts at interfering in the region. There are only difficult choices left before New Delhi.