Infraction from Pakistan: Indian Army will respond at will...

Stung by Indian Army’s “surgical strikes” — to be precise — coordinated simultaneous covert night attacks with stealth, achieving total surprise, the Pakistan Army and its terrorist proxies demonstrated their frustration and cowardice by mutilating yet another Indian Army soldier on November 22, 2016.

The Indian Army responded promptly by punitively pounding over 15 Pakistani posts in five sectors spread along the Line of Control to smithereens with precision heavy-calibre weapons. Such was the impact that Maj. Gen. Shamshad Mirza — obviously an officiating or a stopgap director general military operations (DGMO) because the post is of a Lt. Gen. — was forced to call his Indian counterpart, Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, over the hotline for “unscheduled talks”.

Since the surgical strikes on September 29 this year, 26 people, including 14 security personnel and 12 civilians, have been killed and more than 83 suffered injuries owing to Pakistani shelling and firing along International Border and LoC in Jammu.

After the earlier mutilation of sepoy Mandeep Singh, the Indian Army destroyed four Pakistani posts in the Keran sector. In fact, from October 3 till November 20, well over 80 Pakistani Army/rangers personnel have been killed and well over 100 injured. Radio conversations of Pakistanis intercepted by the Indian Army left no doubt about how hard they have been hit and the tizzy they are in.

Pakistan’s foreign office reacted with a mix of temerity and stupidity by conveying through its spokesperson Nafees Zakaria in a series of tweets that the reports about the mutilation were aimed at maligning Pakistan. “Pakistan strongly rejects the false and baseless Indian media reports regarding the alleged mutilation of an Indian soldier on the LoC. These reports are a fabrication and a blatant attempt to malign Pakistan,” said Mr Zakaria and added that as a professional force, the Pakistan Army isn’t involved in any such “unethical and non-professional” activity and that the Pakistan Army never supported any such action. “However,” he continued, “Pakistan is fully prepared and ready to respond to any misadventure across the LoC, Working Boundary or the International Border.”

Unlike in the pre-BJP era when highly heinous attacks by Pakistani terrorists/Pakistan Army with terrorists — called battle action teams — were retaliated locally by the Indian Army Formation or Unit, very seldom with a nod from the government. When the attack was as bad as the one on Army’s family quarters in Kaluchak in May 2002, the Indian Army units on the IB fired at the Pakistan Army posts opposite them. Then the US ambassador in New Delhi raised an alarm about nuclear armed neighbours upping the ante on the borders and the US embassy issued an advisory about the situation in India being very tense, etc., and followed it up by inviting the Indian media to cover the departure of US embassy diplomats with their families at the airport, to suggest that they are leaving India. They were, in fact, leaving for their children’s summer vacation. Two months later when they returned, an advisory conveniently issued saying that the situation had improved.

The mutilation/beheading of an Indian soldier in January 2013 by Pakistani terrorists, or more likely Pakistan Army regulars posing as terrorists, the Indian Army’s statements were “…we will respond at a time and place of our choosing… local commanders have been given full liberty to give appropriate responses…” However, there were no indications or reports about any appropriate responses. There were media reports about the beheaded soldier’s family expressing anguish and even not accepting his mortal remains till there was no retaliation.

This time around, particularly after the Uri attack, the scenario has been very different and quite unprecedented. The government and the Army are very much on the same page, with the government launching a diplomatic offensive and the Army launching the surgical strikes, which amounted to the US Special Forces’ Operation Geronimo/Neptune Spear (to kill Osama bin Laden) multiplied by eight — minus the attack helicopters. The government has also given the Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) full leeway to respond/retaliate, which both are doing so, tellingly.

Meanwhile, six officials each of both India and Pakistan high commissions, have been reverted to their countries after the activities of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spooks in India were exposed; the Pakistan Army has a new chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, the junior-most of six contending lieutenant generals; Pakistani terrorists are continuing with their activities in the Kashmir Valley and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his diplomats are ranting/repeating their nonsense all over the place.

After the first mutilation, the Indian Army levelled four Pakistan border posts. That was a heavy blow but probably not enough to din enough sense into the Pakistan Army, because a pattern of offensive continued. The second mutilation was obviously another act of frustration of hitting out against the punishment after Uri and the first mutilation. But the retaliation after the second mutilation of destroying over 15 has hurt the Pakistani Army hard because the high tally of fatal casualties, which include at least two Army officers. The collective impact of these three retaliations has also appeared to have registered. Because the LoC has been crossed and the targeting has been deep enough to rattle the Pakistan Army.

In 2002, marking 10 years of India-Israel diplomatic relations, this writer interviewed the then Israeli ambassador to India, David Aphek. Acknowledging that India and Israel had a major common problem of terrorism, he said that Israel could not afford to wait to be attacked; Israel needed to reach out and strike before it could be attacked and that is also how it preempted attacks on its own territory.

After Uri, India entered Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, legally Indian territory, deep enough to destroy seven Pakistan Army-held terrorist launch pads and thereafter pulverising 19/20 or more posts, that finally resulted in a pause.

The new Pakistan Army Chief is reported to have stated that terrorism in his country is a greater threat than India. Does it mean that he will put a stop to Pakistan military-aided terrorism against India? Sounds too good to be true, but there is a report by Cyril Almeida on somewhat same lines.

While the Indian Army, BSF and other security forces in the Valley, in any case will need to keep their guard up, at least it is clear that any infraction from Pakistan will be dealt with accurately and impactfully.