Ahead of the 18th SAARC Summit in Nepal formally announced from November 22 to 27, the heads of governments/states getting together on November 26, the simmering of renewed tension across the Line of Control (Ceasefire line) as well as the international border between India and Pakistan, in Kashmir valley and in Jammu respectively over the 67-year old Kashmir dispute, is clouding the climate of South Asian peace and cooperation.
On the day of Hajj in Mecca, October 3, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is regarded as a legitimate charitable social service by Pakistan and branded as a terrorist outfit by India and USA, addressed a gathering of tens of thousands of people at Liaqatbagh in Rawalpindi, the military headquarters of Pakistan. He warned the public: “India along with Western imperial powers, such as Israel and the US, has been hatching conspiracies against Pakistan by fanning sectarianism in the country. All the political parties should forge unity among their ranks while the nation should also stand along with the Pakistan Army to foil the nefarious designs of enemies and make the defence stronger.” He was obviously giving his reactions to the siege of Islamabad by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led by Cricketer Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek led by Cleric Tahrir-ul-Qadri, that was foiled by united parliamentary condemnation in a joint session of Pakistan’s Senate and National Assembly on October 4, and also to the US-India joint statement at the end of Obama-Modi meeting in Washington on October 30. In the joint statement, the US President and the Indian Prime Minister had specifically spoken against suspected “terrorist” links with the Pakistani establishment as follows: “The leaders stressed the need for joint and concerted efforts, including the dismantling of safe havens for terrorist and criminal networks, to disrupt all financial and tactical support for networks such as al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company, and the Haqqanis. They reiterated call for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai to justice.” India accuses Hafiz Muhammad Saeed of being the mastermind behind the Mumbai massacre, but a Pakistani court had dismissed the evidence provided by India as insufficient to incarcarate Hafiz.
On the Eid day, October 5, Pakistan complained of cross-border firing at the LoC in Kashmir that continued unabated through the 3 days of Korbani. “We say yes to peace, but we will not accept hegemony of any country,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Khan said after attending a top-level meeting convened by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss tensions along the Line of Control. Khan said the National Security Committee decided to write a letter to the United Nations about the “unprovoked Indian firing” as Muslims in the region were preparing to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Pakistan warned New Delhi to refrain from any “adventure.” A statement issued by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s office after the meeting said Pakistan was resolved to respond to any attempts to challenge its territorial integrity and sovereignty “with full force” and that its military was “fully prepared to deal with any adversity at our borders.” Pakistan had taken steps to improve ties with India, but the sincerity demonstrated by Islamabad was not reciprocated.” The “abrupt cancellation” of talks by India and recent clashes were setback to the peace process. Pakistan and India were “aware of each other’s capabilities. War is not an option. It is shared responsibility of the leadership of both countries to immediately defuse the situation.”
New Delhi, on the other hand, accused Pakistan of starting the current skirmishes, saying it wants to create a distraction to help separatist militants infiltrate into Indian-controlled Kashmir. A graphic description of a section of Jammu border was given in a report from New Delhi (Indian Express, October 9) as follows: Bushfire to bullets, face-off threatens to spin out of control. Early on Eid morning, Indian border guards at Pital Post, not far from the small market town of Arnia in Jammu, began their routine march along the giant, barbed-wire border fence that runs from the Rann of Kutch to Kashmir. Like any other day, they wore body armour and carried guns — but this time, they had an unusual message to pass on. Let’s stop firing, it isn’t good for your people or for ours, they had been ordered to shout out to every Pakistani patrol passing by. But before dawn on October 6, mortar shells arched over the border, landing in middle of Arnia and the adjoining hamlet of Mashan-De-Kothe. Lined up at Arnia’s cremation ground that evening were the bodies of five civilians, including 2 women. Like so many of the little wars that erupted on the India-Pakistan frontier in Kashmir, the spark that lit the fire was small: a pile of burning bushes outside the BSF’s Pital Post. The BSF had begun clearing the undergrowth along the border late in the summer, and the Pakistan Rangers had protested, saying the fires threatened their positions. Then, on July 17, constable Sanjay Dhar of the 192 Battalion was shot dead outside Pital Post, killed in a burst that left three of his colleagues, and three more labourers, injured. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had issued orders on June 13 for ceasefire violations to be responded to in strength. And that’s just what the BSF did, firing for days at several Pakistan Ranger positions facing Pital Post, killing at least four Pakistani soldiers. The unusually hard response drew retaliation, with every cycle turning the heat a notch upwards. Each week after, both sides fired thousands of rounds at each other, and clashes reached levels of magnitude higher than anything since India and Pakistan almost went to war in 2001-02. Following the shelling of Arnia, the rules changed and civilians on both sides began to pay the price. In the village of Dhamala, perched near the border east of Sialkot, an ageing woman was shot dead along with a 10-year-old and his four-year-old. In nearby Tulsipur, another senior citizen lost his life. Villagers across the border in Pakistan were targeted in an effort to mount pressure on the Rangers. Fighting raged on a giant arc running from Jammu to Poonch, although Indian commanders have warned the government that a meltdown of the ceasefire would hurt their counter-terrorism efforts in Kashmir, making it impossible to conduct the aggressive patrolling and ambushes that succeeded in eliminating 18 terrorist infiltrators in the last 30 days.
In propaganda war, Indian Ministers expressed almost identical, jingoism as the Ministers of Pakistan. In Delhi, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said on October 9, “Pakistan in these attacks has clearly been the aggressor. If Pakistan persists with this adventurism, our forces will make the cost of this adventurism unaffordable.” Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “The Prime Minster is monitoring the India-Pakistan situation very closely. “Army and BSF personnel are giving a fitting reply” to Pakistan.
BBC monitors observed the charade of a battle of nerves in public utterances of leaders and media hype over the same by and between the two nuclear armed neighbours: Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said his country would “respond befittingly to Indian aggression” but it did not want confrontation. His Indian counterpart, Arun Jaitley, had said Pakistan would be made to pay an “unaffordable” price if it persisted with “adventurism.” Papers in both India and Pakistan have been reflecting “the strong position” taken by the two countries. In India, a front-page headline in the Deccan Herald says: “Government gives army free hand to take on Pakistan.” Pakistani papers have been urging their army to give India a “befitting” reply. But the media in both countries have largely not been able to explain the sudden exchange of fire, and there is a sense of disappointment in editorials and commentaries. Most papers seem to be advocating some form of talks to save the lives of affected civilians. At least 19 Jammu and Kashmir civilians died in the clashes. The Express Tribune, published in Pakistan in collaboration with the International New York Times, says there is “no room for war” and “diplomatic channels remain open and they must be used to their fullest extent. The Indian Express says “civilians on both sides have died” and Mr Modi needs to do “the smart thing” and “take a step back”.
The UN and the Western leaders appeared even-handed in their response to the “small war” situation adjacent to the Af-Pak theatre. They advised resumption of dialogue and bilateral search for a long term solution. And whether or not the whispers of leaders of opinion in the media had any effect on the leaders in Delhi and in Islamabad, indications of diplomatic engagement were forthcoming although simmering tensions continued on the ground.
The Express Tribune reported on October 20: Pakistan has expressed its willingness for early restoration of ‘peace and tranquillity’ along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary with India, even as the two countries again traded fire after a two-day hiatus. Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz spoke to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Appreciating the work of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), Aziz noted that its role should be further strengthened to facilitate more effective monitoring and reporting of ceasefire violations: “The UN should not be inhibited by non-cooperation of one side.” The UN chief expressed his concern over the escalation of violence along the LoC and deplored the loss of lives. He emphasised the importance of both sides taking necessary steps to de-escalate the situation and resolve all outstanding issues through negotiations.
Likewise on October 21, in an India-sponsored UN convention on terrorism, Indian Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser Ajit Kumar Doval said: “We would like to resolve our problems through negotiations, through talks. I don’t think of any problem that cannot be resolved through negotiations. “But on the other hand, India would like to have an effective deterrence to deal with terrorism.
“I think developing better relations with neighbourhood is important. India’s economic development could bind together the region which could see a vested interest that India’s growth will bring more opportunities and they should not feel undermined.”
Hopefully, the last-expressed thought will prevail in the coming SAARC summit, without any attempt by our big neighbour to “Modi-fy” other SAARC members by supremacist swagger of any kind.
Source: Weekly Holiday
