India on Monday launched a series of high-profile offensive and punitive fire assaults along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir to discourage Pakistan from launching terrorists from across the border.
This comes just a few days after the Indian Army had destroyed Pakistan Army posts in Kashmir’s Naushera district. According to the Indian Army, the operation had caused substantial damage to “the Pakistan Army posts, which are supporting infiltration.”
Coming as it does in the backdrop of a series of recent warnings from various members of the union cabinet and the surgical strike last September, the latest assault, both the escalation and subsequent publicity by releasing the videos, signals a hardening of India’s strategy on cross-border terror.
At the same time, India has gone out of the way to signal normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir despite the conflict and disruptions inspired by Pakistan. Last week, the state hosted the 14th meeting of the goods and services tax (GST) Council which took key decisions on fitment of rates; some of the participating 24 finance ministers from states and union territories in fact went out of the way to signal normalcy despite the ongoing conflict.
The latest operations follow the beheading of two Indian security personnel along the de facto LOC in Indian Kashmir on 1 May allegedly by Pakistani troops.
Relationship between India and Pakistan have hit a new low with the confrontations along the border escalating even as both countries have suspended talks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_22-Rj_DM
Giving details of Tuesday’s operations as well as last week’s operations in Naushera, the Indian Army’s ADGPI (Additional Director General of Public Information), Major General Ashok Narula said: “The Pakistan Army has been providing support to armed infiltrators by engaging our forward troops from their weapon emplacements and pill-boxes closer to the LOC. At times, they have not even hesitated to target villages in the proximity of the LOC.”
The Pakistan Army, on its part, dismissed India’s claims.
“Indian claims of destroying Pakistani posts along LOC in Naushera Sec and firing by Pakistan Army on civilians across LOC are false,” Major General Asif Ghafoor, DGISPR (Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations) of Pakistan said in a statement.
Senior government officials, on condition of anonymity, state that Tuesday’s assaults are also to avenge the killing and mutilation of two Indian soldiers on 1 May.
While defence experts have labelled the mutilations a “war crime of barbaric proportions,” the central government underlined its resolution to reclaim areas along the LOC in Kashmir. On 20 May, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa in a letter to key officers of the Indian Air Force had asked them to be combat ready “on very short notice”; a sign that India was upping the ante against Pakistan in its fight against terrorism.
“It is not the time to go soft on those parties abetting terror and aiding infiltration and anti-India activities along the border. Several agencies are involved in these operations. We had started with the surgical strikes and now these ops are also sending out as strong a message,” said a senior government official, requesting anonymity.
Defence experts have added that such operations on part of the Indian Army are just the beginning of a mammoth attempt to flush out militancy from Kashmir.
To be sure, all agencies—government and experts alike, have denied any hint of a full-fledged war.
“This is called vertical escalation, whereby the calibre of the weaponry keeps going up. We are using our military might to keep this going till it becomes expensive for Pakistan and they are forced to stop,” said Major Gaurav Arya, former army officer and defence expert.
The Indian Army too, has made clear its resolve to retain control along the LOC, while also attempting to destroy locations aiding infiltration of terrorists.
While the Indian Army has been conducting Cordon and Search Operations (CASO) in certain pockets in Kashmir after a gap of many years, the home ministry has also been stressing on the importance of letting Kashmir get on with business.
“Separatists and stone-pelters have been trying to halt Kashmir and tell the youth that the Centre is their enemy. The GST Summit which happened on 18-19 May is proof that we consider Kashmir an integral part of the country. It is as important as any other part of this country and so it is imperative to restore normalcy in the Valley,” said a senior home ministry official, on condition of anonymity.
