The country that shares our borders and our
history has never been kind with us. It is not that India-Pakistan bilateral
relations have suddenly hit a major road bump. Pakistan Army capped its
continued string of gross violations of the decade-old ceasefire with a highly
provocative and unacceptable act when its troops crossed the Line of Control in
the Mendhar sector of
Jammu and
Kashmir
on Tuesday and killed two jawans of the
Indian Army after a half-an-hour gun battle. Before retreating to their side of
the LoC, the Pakistani troops mutilated the body of one of the two killed
Indian Army men. The two soldiers who laid down their lives have been
identified as Lance Naik Hemraj and
Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh
This simply is not provocation, but a
challenge, this is another type ~ different from harbouring terrorists, fanning
militancy here and the types of Mumbai carnage of 26/11. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the
highest decision-making body of the Government of India on all issues
pertaining to national security, is likely to be convened by the Prime Minister
to discuss this along with some other important issues.
Extremely sad and sickening to read the
ghastly killing of the Indian soldiers by slitting their throats ~ gruesome and
inhumane act.. hurting more than the ceasefire violation by Pakistani
troops. There are reports that Pakistani
soldiers, apparently from the 29 Baloch Regiment, took advantage of a dense fog
to sneak into an Indian post in Sona Gali area in the border district of Poonch.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is quoted as stating that the government will make it clear to
Pakistan
that
the action of its troops was absolutely unacceptable and it needed
answers. There are some calls that
talks with
Pakistan
should
be called off while Congress said that
Pakistan
owes an explanation. The timing of the latest Pakistani
provocation is both queer and significant. It has come soon after the
Indo-Pakistan cricket series in
India
has ended.
It is yet another categorical demonstration
that none of the so called goodwill gestures will be reciprocated. India bent on their knees to help the ailing
Pak Cricket board and went out of the way to grant visa to Pakistani former
cricketer Javed Miandad, related to
“global terrorist” Dawood Ibrahim. This is no madness but methodical
killing and disturbance of peace process by Pakistanis ~ whether
India
starts
bus transportation across the border or it is cricket diplomacy !
From across the border, the savagery is
nothing new or nothing totally unexpected. It was a message to the peaceniks and to
India
, that Pak
can kill at will and barbarically at that. The way
they treated the dead bodies of Indian soldiers is inhuman,’’ said Defence
Minister AK Antony. Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid termed the mutilation
‘ghastly’ and ‘extremely distressing’. And everytime, you will have a ruling
politician blabber something and this time it was the talk of `proportionate reaction’ to the act from
India
.
The response from
Islamabad
has been on predicted lines.
Pakistan
’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar
has already denied the role of
Pakistan
’s
Army in the incident and said they’re willing to accept a third-party probe
into the matter. All know that nothing
of any sort would ever happen. So what
is that ‘proportionate reaction’ ? At a
time, when things are not accountable here, what is that being tried ~ the ground is familiar and perhaps the
reaction also is and that leads the country nowhere……..
There is no point in diplomacy and talks of
confidence building measures, when our soldiers are bleeding, that too attack
made inside our frontier…. While it is
for the Govt. to take stern measures, there is no point in entertaining the
Pakis elsewhere. Keep them away, marginalize them, isolate them economically and
socially ~ why have trade with a hostile Nation ? and more why sports ?? Remember, no country
tours Pak after that attack on 3rd Mar 2009 ~ on that day a bus carrying Sri
Lankan cricketers, part of a larger convoy, was fired upon by 12 gunmen, near
the Gaddafi Stadium in
Lahore
,
Pakistan
. The
cricketers were on their way to play the third day of the second Test against
the Pakistani cricket team. Six members of the
Sri Lanka
national cricket team
were injured. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed. Teams have not been touring Pak since and
even the not so powerful Bangladesh Cricket Board announced recently that it had shelved on safety grounds a
planned cricket tour of
Pakistan
.
The powerful BCCI is so benevolent to enrich
the coffers of Pak Board that it organized a cricket tour of Pak. During the match at Kolkatta, Harsha Bogle
commented that the Pak players were extremely cordial and appeared so friendly;
remember the words uttered by Afridi and others, immediately after their loss
in WC 2011…………. ~ now individual players will certainly try to display
friendliness, with IPL 6 in the offing, in the hope of a contract and ‘good
money’
With sadness
S. Sampathkumar.