India-Pakistan ping-pong
In times of tension, the general approach is to think of strategies to make the “other side” feel the pinch. If you are smarting from a reverse, soldiers think of getting even.
We, who inhabit India and Pakistan, are more than conversant with such scenarios. They have been part and parcel of our lives since the emergence of two independent nations in 1947.
In the last week, India and Pakistan have exchanged fire across the Line of Control (LoC), with Delhi asserting that two of its soldiers were killed and their bodies mutilated on January 8, a charge that Islamabad has denied.
On January 7, Indian Deputy High Commissioner Gopal Baglay was called to the Pakistan Foreign Office, where he was told of an unprovoked attack by Indian troops in the Hajipir sector on January 6.
Again, on January 11, the Pakistani side stated that one soldier was killed in unprovoked Indian firing. This, and other incidents of firing, went against the spirit of the India-Pakistan peace process, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani told Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal.
On January 12, Indian air chief N.A.K. Browne said Delhi might have to look at other options in the wake of Pakistani violations of the LoC.
Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, however, said in an interview on the same day: “We think this will pass. We think we have enough agreements in place between the Pakistanis and ourselves to counter these issues … the mutilation and the beheading that took place is tragic …”
Earlier, Pakistani Foreign Minister ruled out a Pakistani hand in the killing of two Indian soldiers on January 8 and offered a third-party inquiry into the incident.
Any impartial observer would note that there’s a context to the claims of ceasefire violations by the two sides, and it’s always the “other party” to blame.
Both The Hindu newspaper and DNA reported their own versions of what might have led to the current clashes – giving a background of the recent tensions.
As this blog is written on Sunday, at least one news agency is reporting that there will be a flag meeting between the Indian and Pakistani sides on Monday at 1 pm Indian time.
There’s little doubt that India and Pakistan are up to their old games along the LoC – the circumstances may be disputed, but the fact that soldiers are being killed is clear.
After a futile limited war in Kargil, India and Pakistan had shown great, good sense to put in place what can only be called a “sudden” ceasefire in November 2003.
Without getting into too many details here, let me just say that the ceasefire happened in three days in November 2003, driven by a solid back-channel between India and Pakistan.
This was an event of exemplary importance and has no doubt saved countless lives of Indian and Pakistani soldiers and allowed civilians on both sides of the LoC to lead fairly normal lives.
Largely, this ceasefire has held. Cross-LoC trade and bus services have also added to the confidence that India and Pakistan wanted to move on from old adversarial POSITIONS.
Nothing significant has been added on to the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan since 2003 as to how their differences are to be sorted out.
After showing dramatic political will then, India and Pakistan have done next to nothing in the last 10 years towards putting in place a structure that would lead to greater conversation among local-level military commanders and ensure that firing is history.
The Indians will tell you about their fear that the Pakistani army is still “pushing” jihadis across the LoC, a charge that Rawalpindi will definitely deny.
But these are excuses. The real problem is that there is no political will in Delhi and Islamabad to take the next steps to make the peace process genuinely irreversible.
I am not one of those who share the view of impending war, but believe that television hawks in India have had a field day demanding “more” from their government.
In sectors along the LoC and international border, where both sides feel secure, should not there be a move to move troops back from eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation?
Yet again, if the two sides had been able to come to an agreement on demilitarising Siachen, there would have been a positive, cascading effect all along the LoC and the international border.
It’s becoming clear that a military-to-military dialogue is essential if the quantum of trust along the LoC and in other areas between the two nuclear neighbours is to be enhanced.
In India-Pakistan relations, the status quo has a tendency to deteriorate. We have seen this time and again.
Ironically, India and Pakistan met in end-December 2012 to discuss conventional confidence-building measures, but nothing much came out of the meeting.
Other than those who live in hawkish paradise, history tells us that altering the status quo along the LoC is a pipe-dream, something that Pervez Musharraf hopefully understood after Kargil in 1999.
So, if we understand that, why not take the next steps in trying to demilitarise the frontier?
Or do we have to do some mind-demilitarisation first?
Amit Baruah is an independent, Delhi-based journalist. He is the author of Dateline Islamabad and reported for The Hindu newspaper from Pakistan.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group
Until Pakistan considers Kashmir a disputed territory,these things will continue and many more soldiers will be killed on either side.
Pakistan should learn to accept its msideamonrs.A few newclear weapons is no guarantee that its country does not face dismemberment.After all size and quantity.quality and efficiency matter in usage of modern weapons in todays war.Three wars and american weapons have failed to save pakistan at the hands of indians. Be realistic and know yr strenths and weaknesses for ventuirng into foolhardy excercises.
Mr.Baruah lives in “fool’s paradise” !
De-melitirzation of Siachin and LoC ! What a joke !
Then where does he want to put militry.
The poor people of both countries have no problem but the leaders, religious and political created all problems before partion Hindus,Sikhs and Muslimms were living peacefully and even now when any Muslim visits Panjab and goes to the village where he or his elders were born he is welcomed and the same is case when any Sikh or Hindu visits Pakistan.Secondly in armed forces of both the countries only common people joint the Army to earn his livelihood .
The sad reality is that we still see being friends with each other as an option. We are so naive, There are so many examples in front of us. Certainly we have still not understood the truth about our own history, geography, culture and most importantly our genes. Seems like things will only change in this region when again a third party will come to do so.
There is another aspect of all this. Whenever politicians start a process to improve things the military at either side starts feeling the discomfort as it’s against their long term interest to have everlasting peace. So politicians feel it safe to keep the status quo.
Every time Pakistan and India start to come together — if it is not Hafiz Saeed it is the border patrol — who knows may be they are the two names of the same entity.
The problem is the Pakistan Government follows one track with India and the Pakistani Army has its own agenda. Every time a civil government starts making headway with India the Pakistani Army derails everything….it happened in 1999…one one hand the Lahore-Delhi Bus service was started and then Kargil happened. This time the Pak cricket team came to India after years…Hockey players came….and now this. I think India will have to engage the Pakistani military in a dialogue of sorts as nothing the civil government says or commits to will hold if the Pakistani Army disagrees. You have to understand that the Pakistani Army is surviving because of its India threat propaganda. If India & Pakistan resolve their disputes then the role of the Army in Pakistan will dwindle drastically…which they don’t want. I believe they too dont want a full scale war as that will expose them completely but they just want to keep the threat alive….keep simmering the situation and not inflame it. A revolution is needed in Pakistan against the Army….keep them in the barracks and I assure you you will not never need them against us.
To Dear Dawn Team….
Stop publishing ping-pong articles from a ping-pong author’s desk….!
We expect something that much much more than just reporting….we expect professional journalism.
I think leaders and military of both countries never honestly tried for peace due to personel and political gains. On the other hand the big gaints like US, USSR and else are sucking money from both nations by arming them. Hypotheticaly if there is absolute peace in the region, then armies or both will shrink to army size of Canada, Switzerland , Oman etc. Now do you beleive that your generals would like to cut their size, never. Secondly leaders on both sides are held by ego, religious afiliation and regid political agenda of hostility agaist neighbour. These conflict on border will happen momentarily but will never flash into war because both knows that noone will win the war. It will be doom day for the region and they dont want it. Hope for the best.
Pakistan has violated and perhaps blocked all the way through which we could be able to solve all the issue…..