WhyIndianTroopsattackedaPakistaniPostontheLineofControl(LOC)inKashmir

ColMuhammadHanif(Retd) Ashighlightedinthemediareports,on6January2013IndianforceshadraidedaPakistaniMilitarypost across LOC in Hajipir sector in Kashmir and killed a soldier of Pakistan Army. Indian troops also left a pistol and dagger behind. On this cease fire violation Pakistan lodged a protest citing pistol and dagger as a proof. However Indian authorities rejected Pakistans allegation. Later, on 8 January 2013 Indians claimed that Pakistani troops had killed two Indian soldiers namely Lance Naik Hemraj and Sepoy Sudhkar Singh and one dead body was multilated with the head chopped off. Pakistan Army has denied these allegations. Indian press release condemned the alleged incident and media hype was created linking the incident with the alleged death and torture of an Indian Captain during Kargil conflict. Indian PrimeMinister,ForeignMinister,IndianChiefofArmyStaffandIndianChiefofAirStaffgavestatements accusing Pakistan of repeated LOC violations. Indian Air Chief even warned Pakistan by stating that if repeated violations occurred from Pakistani side India will have to think about other options. Salman Khurshid, Indian Foreign Minister even said that this incident will factor in the future road map of India Pakistanrelations. Also, Pakistans High Commissioner in New Delhi was summoned on 9 January 2013 by Indian authorities and a lengthy protest note was handed over to him. The note stated that Pakistani troops crossed the control line and ambushed an Indian patrol killing two Indian soldiers. It added that bodies of two Indian soldiers were mutilated and head of one of the bodies was missing. Apart from many allegations contained in the protest note it was said, the action was done by Pakistan Army troops with a view to negating the efforts of the two governments to improve relations. It was also stated that Pakistan Government should investigate the incident. Our High Commissioner however denied Indian allegations of crossing of LOC by Pakistani troops and committing brutality against Indian soldiers. He stated that the actual fact was that on 6 January 2013 Indian troops had crossed LOC and attacked our

post at Haji Pir pass as a result of which one of the Pakistani soldier embraced shahadat. About this violation Pakistan had already lodged a protest to India. Stating that such incidents should be resolved through DGMOs hotline and flag meetings, our High Commissioner also suggested that while separate inquiries may be done by both military authorities, the UNMOGIP should also be asked to inquire into theincident.IndianauthoritieshoweverrejectedaninquirytobeconductedbytheUNMOGIP. LOC violation carried out by the Indian troops on 6 January 2013 in Hajipir sector killing one Pakistani soldier, subsequent violations by Indian troops and hard statements of Indian leadership on the subject and Pakistans mature handling of the situation indicates that it is India and not Pakistan that wants to disturb the ongoing bilateral peace process. Now the question arises as to why India created such a situation on the LOC, created a media hype to blame Pakistani troops for violating cease fire agreement across the LOC and Indias senior leadership gave threatening statements thus creating tension which was noted worldwide? The US and the UNO Secretary General had to issue policy statements asking IndiaandPakistanfordeescalatingthetensionontheLOC. AnindepthanalysisofthesituationindicatesthatIndiacreatedthistensionattheLOCtoachievesome political objectives relating to its domestic and foreign policy issues. To achieve such objectives India always first creates a propaganda theme, then it creates a suitable ground situation to support the theme and simultaneously its military and political elite, media persons and think thanks start a well coordinated propaganda game to exploit the ground situation to Indias advantage. This time, by violating cease fire agreement across LOC, India wanted to achieve following likely objectives. Since Pakistan India trade through land routes was opening up, Kashmiris of Jammu were also pressing India to open Jammu Sialkot and Jammu Nowshera MirpurMangla routes for trade with Pakistan and Azad Kashmir which India was not willing to do. This issue was about to be discussed in the next round of compositedialogueabouttobeheldsoon.ThesituationontheLOCwascreatedandpropagatedtoput pressure on Pakistan and Kashmiris that due to LOC tensions, discussion on opening of aforementioned routeswasnotpossiblesinceitwillnotfetchdomesticpoliticalsupportinIndia. This LOC violation done by Indian troops may also be aimed at serving Indias propaganda objective of blaming Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism by blaming that it is still pushing fighters across LOC. That is why Indian newspapers had alleged that Pakistan had facilitated crossing of its fighters to Indian HeldKashmir(IHK)byattackingIndianpostandcreatingthesituationofcrossfiring. The Indian LOC violation may also be related to Afghanistan situation. Recently the US leaders have given policy statements that Pakistan is the key to post withdrawal peace in Afghanistan. And according to many press reports Pakistan US are already cooperating in arranging peace talks to seek a peace agreement in Afghanistan. In this scenario, India sees its role in Afghanistan to be diminishing. It also envies Pakistans significance in the final settlement of Afghanistan situation. Therefore it appears that India has created tension across the LOC to attract world attention regarding its importance for keeping peace in South Asia and that it should also be assigned some major role in Afghanistan. That is why Indias top civilian and military leadership gave policy statements blaming Pakistan for LOC situation, whereas in case of such a violation on the LOC there is no need for such high profile leaders to speak as theissuecanberesolvedinaflagmeetingoflocalmilitarycommanders.

It is also likely that India wanted to blame Pakistan Army for disrespecting dead bodies of enemy personnel by mutilating their bodies, to catch world attention on a concocted issue of mutilation of body of an Indian officer who died during Kargil war and whose case is likely to be referred by India to the International Court of justice (ICJ). This game of referring such engineered matters to ICJ is part of Indias old and consistent policy to defame Pakistan at international level. Therefore blaming Pakistani troops for mutilating body of an Indian soldier on LOC is a propaganda act of India since it was Indian Army who attacked Pakistani post. Even otherwise, being professional force Pakistan Army personnel cannotbeexpectedtodisrespectdeadbodiesofenemysoldiers. ThereisanotherpossibilitythatinviewofthegeneralelectionsduetobeheldinIndiain2014,Congress leaderswantedtouseantiPakistansentimentasasloganfortheupcomingelectioncampaigntoattract voters. According to its old tradition Congress would like to attract attention of voters by creating tension with Pakistan even at the cost of postponing the recent progress being made on the trade front to counter BJP claims that Congress is over keen in building relations with Pakistan. Thus in this regard creation of tension with Pakistan was only possible if peace at LOC was disturbed and Pakistan was blamedbythehighestleadershipofIndiatohighlightthetensionatregionalandworldlevel. Therefore from the foregoing discussion it is quite clear that the LOC incident was created and used by India to meet its political objectives. If this was not the case then Pakistans suggestion of an inquiry by UNMOGIP would not have been rejected by India and its top leadership would not have given hard statements on the issue. Pakistan Army was blamed without its involvement just for covering Indian Armys action and alleging Pakistan as an aggressor state that uses terrorism as a tool of its foreign policy. In the light of this discussion it is in the interest of evolving good relations between Pakistan and India that Indian civil society and media should go into details to know the facts of the incident instead of blindly following government line. It is also important for regional countries and international community to understand Indias clever politics of sponsoring and committing aggressive events on LOC in Kashmir and propagating those to its advantage and also blaming Pakistan for undermining its internationalimageandpeaceorientedforeignpolicy. (ThewriterworksforIPRIIslamabad)