{"id":32309,"date":"2018-10-29T13:31:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=32309"},"modified":"2018-10-29T13:31:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:01:17","slug":"behind-the-enemy-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/behind-the-enemy-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the enemy line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/behind-the-enemy-line\/article22360673.ece\"><strong>Behind the enemy line<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The closer you get to the border in J&amp;K, the greater the yearning for an end to ceasefire violations<\/p>\n<p><strong>The closer you get to the border in J&amp;K, the greater the yearning for an end to ceasefire violations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Author went on a field trip to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with the Pakistan army for research on ceasefire violations along the India-Pakistan<\/p>\n<p><strong>On the other side<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Murree was under a thick blanket of snow on a cold December morning at the headquarters of General Officer Commanding of Pakistan Army\u2019s 12 Division<\/p>\n<p><strong>Disquiet<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There was a great deal of politeness around, probably camouflaging the disquiet at having someone over from the \u2018enemy\u2019 country<\/li>\n<li>For an army that has been conditioned to view India as its existential enemy, this was to be expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tatrinote-Chakan Da Bagh<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While on our way to the Tatrinote-Chakan Da Bagh trading point from the Battal sector (which the Pakistan Army calls a \u2018hot\u2019 area due to the frequent firing there) in the frontlines of Rawalakot, the Brigadier of 2-AK insisted on taking a circuitous route<\/p>\n<p><strong>Friendly Fire<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The faster road connection to the trading point was right under the Indian posts and was under constant Indian firing<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt would be a pity if you were to be shot by your country\u2019s army,\u201d the Brigadier said half-seriously looking up at what the Pakistan Army calls India\u2019s \u2018Jungle Post\u2019 in the foothills of the PirPanjal mountain range<\/li>\n<li>Ducking \u2018friendly fire\u2019 while on \u2018enemy territory\u2019 seemed sensible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Sanctum Sanctorum<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On day three, we drove down to Rawalpindi from Rawalakot and entered what is normally off-limits for most civilians, most certainly an Indian, the \u2018sanctum sanctorum\u2019 of the Pakistan Army, its heavily guarded General Headquarters. The General Headquarters is an impressive world-class campus, as are the security protocols and paraphernalia in and around it<\/p>\n<p><strong>Meeting with Chief of General Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I was ushered in to have a private meeting with the Chief of General Staff (arguably the second most powerful officer in the Pakistan Army) and his deputy<\/li>\n<li>He seemed upbeat about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Pakistan Army\u2019s ability to handle internal security challenges, and Pakistan\u2019s return to the regional geopolitical scheme of things.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Destruction on both sides<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Any visitor to either side of the LoC and the International Boundary (IB) in the Jammu-Sialkot sector would be shocked by the destruction of lives and livelihoods both sides have suffered over the years<\/p>\n<p><strong>Use of heavy artillery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the rampant use of high calibre weapons such as mortars and even artillery in the borders in Jammu and Kashmir, civilian casualties and the destruction of their habitats have risen steadily<\/p>\n<p><strong>Similar narratives<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The narratives about death and destruction and how children cannot attend school due to ceasefire violations are tragically similar on both sides of the border<\/p>\n<p><strong>Low population on the Indian side<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the Indian side, much of this destruction is in the Jammu sector where villages fall in the range of high calibre Pakistani weapons<\/p>\n<p><strong>Far more on the Pakistani side<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Notably, there is far more border population on the Pakistani side than on the Indian side which has over the years put the Pakistan Army under a lot of pressure from the local population to control the firing<\/li>\n<li>Unfortunately, this doesn\u2019t seem to have put much pressure on New Delhi.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Trade persists<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The one source of relief for the border population is the cross-LoC trade and transit that has persisted despite the ceasefire violations<\/li>\n<li>Despite being disrupted for short periods due to the firing, it is eventually reinstated to the relief of the local Kashmiris on both sides.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Always under threat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Soldiers posted on both sides also live under the constant threat of enemy firing. A senior Border Security Force officer once described this fear: \u201cA man standing on duty at the post is always under tremendous fear of being watched by the opposite side through a telescopic rife and of being shot at any moment.\u201d Being patriotic is one thing, dying avoidable deaths is another.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Uneven deployment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pakistani military deployment on the LoC is thin compared to the Indian deployment along the counterpart sectors<\/p>\n<p>The Pakistani side has not erected border fences, has stationed fewer troops, constructed fewer posts, and carries out very little patrolling along the zero line<\/p>\n<p><strong>India dominance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In short, Indian forces enjoy sheer physical dominance along the borders<\/p>\n<p>This seems to have aided the ability of the Indian forces to carry out occassional \u2018surgical strikes\u2019, both acknowledged or otherwise, across the LoC<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pakistan more enthusiastic about confidence building measures on the border<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thanks to its thinner presence on the borders and the asymmetric impact on its border population, there seems to be greater enthusiasm in Pakistan for confidence-building measures to reduce violations on the border<\/li>\n<li>Pakistan, for instance, is keen to formalise the 2003 ceasefire agreement and to discuss other related confidence-building measures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Officers open to suggestions than our political class<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not so surprisingly, officers posted on either side of the LoC and IB (in Jammu) are far more open to suggestions of confidence-building measures than the political classes and civilian bureaucracies in the respective capitals<\/p>\n<p><strong>3 Suggestions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Three suggestions which seem to have some traction on both sides deserve mention<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lower the caliber of violations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One sure way of reducing the destruction of civilian habitats is to lower the calibre of the violations<\/p>\n<p><strong>How: <\/strong>To do so, the two sides could consider withdrawing heavy artillery to 50 km behind the zero line<\/p>\n<p><strong>Regular meetings at DGMO level<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Two, the two Director-Generals of Military Operations, along with their delegations, could consider holding regular meetings every six months<\/li>\n<li>Data show that every time the leaderships of the armed forces meet, ceasefire violations come down \u2014 albeit for not too long<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Establishing more Flag meeting points<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Three, establishing more flag meeting points between local commanders and responding quickly to meeting requests could lead to better communication and reduced misunderstandings resulting in fewer ceasefire violations<\/p>\n<p><strong>India should take the initiative<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That the Indian side suffers fewer casualties and lesser destruction of civilian habitats is no reason why we should avoid entering into joint mechanisms to stabilise the borders in Jammu and Kashmir<\/li>\n<li>Over 30 slain Indian soldiers on the LoC and close to 900 ceasefire violations last year alone (note that each ceasefire violation could be tens of thousands of shots ranging from personal weapons to heavy artillery) should be reason enough for doing so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Behind the enemy line Context The closer you get to the border in J&amp;K, the greater the yearning for an end to ceasefire violations The closer you get to the border in J&amp;K, the greater the yearning for an end to ceasefire violations Author went on a field trip to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with the Pakistan&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/behind-the-enemy-line\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Behind the enemy line<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704899508},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}