Pak LOC Attacks

Pak LoC attacks:
Is the time for diplomacy over?
Table of contents
The Poonch provocation

Army says jawans were on routine patrol when Pakistani troops attacked From Modi to Omar Abdullah: Who said what on Pak LoC violation UPA has failed to secure Indian borders: Narendra Modi 04 05 06
The warning signs

Exclusive: Dirty war on LoC preceded deadly Poonch ambush Exclusive: Details of LoC killings that came before Poonch ambush Despite Nawaz Sharifs promise, Pakistan army is funding anti-India jihad Why J&K attacks show India needs a strong Afghanistan policy 08 11 13 16
Aftermath of an attack
Ground report: Poonch residents fear war after Pak violates ceasefire Why India simply has to strategically shelve Pakistan Poonch killings: How US is pulling the strings of India-Pak relations India, Pak cant treat each other as untouchables: Khurshid 19 21 23 25
The battle over AK Antonys statement

LoC killings: Will BJP make PM pay for Antony statement? Cong defends Antony, says he did not give clean chit to Pak army Antonys statement on LoC killing not changed at our behest: PMO LoC killings: BJP has its way, Antony will make new statement Full text: How AK Antony slammed Pak hand in LoC killings Talking to Pakistan is not equal to a clean chit: Mani Shankar Aiyar 28 30 31 32 34 35
The Pak response

Full text: Pakistan Foreign Ministry says its army didnt kill 5 Indian soldiers Pak media slams Indian rhetoric and vitriol after LoC attack 38 39
Copyright 2012 Firstpost
The Poonch provocation
when Pakistani troops attacked

The officer said all the jawans have died of gunshot wounds and there was no beheading or mutilation of bodies.
he Indian Army has said that six soldiers were on a routine patrol when they were attacked resulting in the death of 5 of them, and left one of them injured. The injured soldier has been admitted to a hospital. A party of six jawans was on routine patrolling between fencing and the post, when Pakistan troops attacked them by opening firing near Sarla battalion post area along LoC in Poonch district during pre-dawn time, he said, adding that the Pakistan Army had violated the ceasefire agreement. The deceased jawans belonged to 21 Bihar Regiment post at Sarla forward area along the LoC in Chakan-Da-Bagh sector of Poonch.
Army says jawans were on routine patrol
PTI, Aug 6, 2013 The officer said the patrol had lost contact with the Army unit around 0115 hours, close to the time of the attack. We sent a patrol to the area around 0530 hours today and found five jawans dead with gunshot wounds. One was injured and he is in utter shock, he said. The bodies have been brought back to unit area, he said. Asked whether Pakistans Border Action Team (BAT) was involved in the attack, he said it was carried out by the troops of 2 PoK Brigade, which is deployed in that sector. The officer said all the jawans have died of gunshot wounds and there was no beheading or mutilation of bodies.
Who said what on Pak LoC violation

Five Indian soldiers have been killed along the Line of Control in Kashmir, in another violation of the ceasefire by Pakistan troops
FP Staff Aug 6, 2013
From Modi to Omar Abdullah:
ive Indian soldiers have been killed along the Line of Control in Kashmir, in another violation of the ceasefire by Pakistan troops. The attack on the Saral post in Chakkan da Bagh, Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, was carried out by a group of Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists with the help of Pakistani soldiers, sources told CNN-IBN.
Narendra Modi, Gujarat CM: From Chinas intrusions to Pakistans ambushes- UPA Government has been absolutely lax in securing Indian borders. When will Centre wake up? Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena leader: Till we (India) dont enter Pakistan and kill 50 of them for 5 of ours, they will not learn a lesson. RPN Singh, Minister of State, Home Affairs: Extremely unfortunate incident. If Pakistan wants to have better relations with India this isnt the way. I cannot comment on this because I dont have full information on this defence ministry and foreign ministry will be equipped to give statement on this. Farooq Abdullah, Former J&K chief minister: These things affect normalisation of relationship between Pakistan and India. Friendship cannot be one way. Rajiv Shukla, MoS, Parliamentary Affairs and Planning: This is very unfortunate. Defence minister is aware of the matter and he will definitely act according to the provisions. Meanwhile, Pakistani security officials denied any involvement in the deaths of Indian soldiers on the disputed and heavily militarised border in Kashmir. There was no indiscriminate firing from our side, one security official told Reuters. Another official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters, denied there had been an exchange of fire on the border between the nuclear powers. There was no such incident whatsoever, he said. There was no firing on the border.
After uproar in Rajya Sabha over killing of soldiers in J&K, the house has been adjourned. Here are some of the reactions of the ministers: Omar Abdullah, J&K CM: These incidents dont help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pakistan. Was briefed early this morning about news that 5 of our soldiers had been killed on the LOC. My heartfelt condolences to their next of kin. Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP spokesperson: How many more brave Indian soldiers need to be sacrificed for Indian government to become stern? Jaswant Singh, BJP leader: This is not a terror attack, its an incident on the LoC. Need more info as to why so many incidents? Such incidents do not contribute to strengthening of relationship between the two countries.
UPA has failed to secure

Indian borders: Narendra Modi
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called the killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops a dastardly ambush while Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the killings wont help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Islamabad.
IANS, Aug 6, 2013
ew Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called the killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops a dastardly ambush while Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the killings wont help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Islamabad.
day, Modi tweeted: Dastardly ambush by Pakistan last night in the Chakan da Bagh area of Poonch leading to death of 5 Indian Soldiers is unacceptable. He also expressed heartfelt condolences to the families of the brave soldiers who laid down their lives in Poonch. Modi said in another tweet: From Chinas intrusions to Pakistans ambushes, UPA government has been absolutely lax in securing Indian borders. When will Centre wake up? Omar Abdullah too tweeted: Was briefed early this morning about news that 5 of our soldiers had been killed on the Line Of Control (LoC). My heartfelt condolences to their next of kin. These incidents dont help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pak and call into question the Pak govts recent overtures.
Both were quick to take the micro-blogging Twitter route to condemn the violation of ceasefire Monday night by Pakistan in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. Soon after the news of the killing broke Tues-
Five Indian Army soldiers were killed by Pakistani troops who crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district. Pakistan has been violating the bilateral ceasefire between India and Pakistan that came into force in 2003.
The warning signs
Exclusive: Dirty war on LoC

preceded deadly Poonch ambush
Early this month, five men disappeared from a village on the Pakistani side of the LoC - kidnapped, Pakistan alleges, by an Indian special forces unit fighting against a renewed wave of jihadist infiltration. The Poonch ambush, Indian intelligence believes, was retaliation.
his, and only this, do we know for a fact: early this month, Zafran Ghulam Sarwar, Wajid Akbar, Mohammad Wajid Akbar and Mohammad Faisal left their homes on the Pakistani side of the control in the Neelam valley, and never came back. Pakistan claims they were innocent herb collectors, who were kidnapped by an Indian special forces engaged in an offensive counter-terrorism operation across the Line of Control. India says it has no idea what happened to the men. Not long after they disappeared, though, five still-unidentified men were shot dead by
Praveen Swami Aug 6, 2013 Indian troops in the same area, 500 metres on the Indian side of the Line of Control. Naresh Vij, an Indian army spokesperson, said troops had not recovered any bodies as they are lying very far. Privately, Indian intelligence officials posted in the sector speculate the men may have indeed been targetted by special forces but insist they were guides for jihadist groups crossing the Line of Control, not innocent men executed by the army for no reason at all. Like everything else to do with the secret war
Indian and Pakistani troops are locked in along the Line of Control, the facts are opaque. Few, charged with nationalist passions, are much interested in the truth, anyway. Mondays killing of five troops from the 21 Bihar Regiment, marks the first significant crisis in India-Pakistan relations since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took power earlier this year. The ambush, highly-placed army sources have told Firstpost, was almost certainly carried out to retaliate against a series of successful Indian operations in the northern stretches of the Line of Control. It targeted a routine patrol in a relatively peaceful area, near the Chakan-da-Bagh cross-Line of Control trading post. The sources said a sixth soldier on the patrol, who escaped the firing, is being questioned to determine precisely what happened. Early accounts, though, all point to a disciplined, military-style operation. The ambush comes, as Firstpost recently revealed, amidst the first year that violence in Jammu and Kashmir has shown an uptick since the near-war of 2001-2002. In the last week of July alone, 12 jihadists were killed in northern Kashmirs Kupwara district levels of infiltration not seen in years. In the last major encounter, five terrorists were killed short of Hema post, on the Line of Control in Kupwara. The Line of Control (LoC)in the Jammu region has seen 42 exchanges of fire this year, the sources said, up from 28 in all of 2012. This, however, we do also know: last nights lethal ambush in Poonch was just the latest in phase in a secret war along the Line of Control that have continued apace since the beheadings of Lance-Naik Hem Raj and Lance-Naik Sudhakar Naik in January. Friction between the two armies has been re-erupted periodically since February, when Pakistan alleged that one of its soldiers had been executed in cold blood after accidentally straying across the Line of Control and being taken prisoner. India, however, disputed this version of events. We detected some suspicious movement near the LoC inside our territory and the challengers from our side fired, said Lieutenant-Colonel Rajesh Kalia, a spokesperson for the Indian army.
Late last month, Pakistan complained that unprovoked Indian fire had led to the death of Sepoy Asim Iqbal in the Nazia Peer sector, near the town of Rawlakote. India, however, said the firing began in response to an infiltration attempt. The fighting had its genesis in events that began in October, when Pakistan complained of new Indian border works at Charunda, in Uri. India responded that the works were purely defensive, intended to prevent illegal border crossings. The unresolved dispute led to exchanges of fire, which eventually escalated into shelling and the killings of soldiers on both sides. The beheading of Indian soldiers in January was the culmination of a long series of attacks and counter-attacks a vicious cycle driven by the Pakistan armys continued support of jihadist infiltration into Kashmir. The November 2003 ceasefire, Indian diplomatic sources say, was based on an unwritten agreement, which in essence stipulated that neither side would reinforce its fortifications along the Line of Control a measure first agreed to after the 1971 war. In 2006, the two sides exchanged drafts for a formal agreement but the talks have stalled. Long before the dispute over border construction, though, several similar cross-border clashes had taken place. In March, 1998, an Indian special forces unit is alleged to have killed 22 civilians at the village of Bandala, in the Chhamb sector; two villagers decapitated; the eyes of several others were allegedly gouged out by the attackers. The Pakistani military claimed to have recovered an Indian-made watch from the scene of the carnage, along with a hand-written note which asked, How does your own blood feel? The Bandala massacre is alleged to have been carried to avenge massacre of 29 Hindu villagers at Prankote, in Jammu and Kashmir, by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Lashkar attackers slit the throats of their victims, which included women and infants. Large-scale civilian killings did not take place again, but the Indian army continued to dish
out at least as good as it got. In May 1999, as the Kargil war broke out, Captain Saurabh Kalia, along with sepoys Bhanwar Lal Bagaria, Arjun Ram, Bhika Ram, Moola Ram and Naresh Singh, were kidnapped by Pakistani troops. Post mortem revealed that the mens bodies had been burned with cigarette-ends and their genitals mutilated. Late in January, 2000, seven Pakistani soldiers were alleged to have been captured in a raid on a post in the Nadala enclave, across the Neelam River. The seven soldiers were allegedly tied up and dragged across a ravine running across the LoC. The bodies were returned, according to Pakistan, bearing signs of brutal torture. There have been a string of smaller incidents since the ceasefire went into force. In June, 2008, Pakistani troops attacked the Kranti border observation post near Salhotri village in Poonch, killing 2-8 Gurkha Regiment soldiers in Jawashwar Chhame. The retaliation, when it came, was savage: Pakistani officials allege Indian troops beheaded a soldier and carried his head across on 19 June, 2008, in the Bhattal sector in Poonch.
Finally on 30 August, 2011, Pakistan complained that three soldiers, including a JCO, were beheaded in an Indian raid on a post in the Sharda sector, across the Neelam river valley in Kel retaliation for the decapitation of two Indian soldiers near Karnah. Theres unlikely to be an end to this savagery until cross-border infiltration ends, and thats something that seems ever more unlikely. For Pakistans army, facing an existential battle with the Tehreek-e-Taliban that it is unable to win, precipitating a crisis with India is an attractive option. In the wake of 26/11, jihadists vowed to rally behind Pakistan if war with India broke out; that promise has since been renewed periodically. It is self-evident that preventing a rapprochement between jihadists and the generals is in Indias best interest the reason why both Prime Ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh proved willing to pay the political price for a policy of strategic restraint. Indias own looming elections, though, are making such restraint ever more difficult for political leaders to practice.
Exclusive: Details of LoC killings that came before Poonch ambush

Four men Pakistan alleges were kidnapped by India may have been killed in an encounter on June 29, documents obtained by Firstpost show.
Praveen Swami Aug 7, 2013 cycle leading to the killings of five Indian troops in Poonch-sparking off the worst India-Pakistan crisis in months. In a First Information Report filed on 30 July, Indian troops said they had killed four unidentified Pakistani intruders. The FIR records the armys statement that it recovered a AK-56 assault rifle, three pistols and a 12-bore shotgun from the group. You would expect terrorists to carry weapons like the AK-56, a senior Jammu and Kashmirbased army officer said, but I cant understand what theyd be doing with a 12-bore gun, which is typically used for hunting small prey. He also noted it was unusual for an infiltrating group of four terrorists to possess only one assault rifle, and no grenades or communication equipment.
ven as fresh skirmishes rage along the northern reaches of the Line of Control, new details are emerging on the controversial killing of four Pakistani men on the Line of Control, an incident which is believed to have set off a spiral of clashes culminating in Mondays lethal ambush of troops near Chakanda-Bagh in Poonch. Pakistan has alleged that the four men were kidnapped by Indian troops operating across the Line of Control. Police documentation exclusively obtained by Firstpost suggests that Zafran Ghulam Sarwar, Shah Zaman, Muhammad Faisal and Wajid Akbar may have been killed near Katwar Post, a forward position along the Line of Control in the Macchel sector, along the Neelam river, late on the night of 29 July. Firstpost had broken news, on Tuesday, about concerns that the alleged killings and skirmishes which followed it may have triggered off a
Local residents, who helped bury the bodies after they were handed over to local police through a special police officer attached to the army, said at least two of the men were wearing rubber flip-flops-again, unusual gear for men who had infiltrated mountain passes leading through the rugged Neelam valley. The FIR was signed on behalf of the 56 Rashtriya Rifles by its adjutant. The Rashtriya Rifles, drawn from various army formations, is generally deployed on counter-insurgency duties inside Jammu and Kashmir. However, the 56 Rashtriya Rifles operates up to the fencing running along the Line of Control. It remains unclear, though, if the four men were, as Pakistan claims, innocent local residents who strayed close to the Line of Control while collecting herbs. Local residents say the men could also have been out poaching muskdeer, a common-if illegal activity. Intelligence officials based in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier told Firstpost that there was reason to believe the four men had been kidnapped in a cross-border operation, targettng individuals helping cross-border infiltrators. The alleged kidnapping took place in the midst of a series of sweeps targeting groups of jihadists who had made their way across the Line of Control into the Hafruda forests above the north Kashmir town of Kupwara. In the last week of July alone, twelve jihadists were killed in northern Kashmirs Kupwara districtlevels of infiltration not seen in years. Five terrorists were killed short of Hema Post, on the Line of Control in Kupwara. The infiltration surge, as Firstpost recently revealed, has led to the first uptick in violence levels through Jammu and Kashmir since the near-war of 2001-2002. New Delhi has so far offered no official comment on the controversy, while Jammu and Kashmir Director-General of Police Ashok Prasad will be probed only if the government orders an investigation. Fighting between the two armies continues along the Line of Control, with both sides trading small-arms fire at Kamalkot, near Uri, last night and this morning. Two Pakistani soldiers are reported to have been injured in the latest
exchanges. Low-grade skirmishes have broken out regularly since January, when Pakistani troops beheaded two Indian soldiers, Lance-Naik Hem Raj and Lance-Naik Sudhakar Naik, in an ambush. Later, in February, Pakistan alleged that one of its soldiers had been executed in cold blood after accidentally straying across the Line of Control and being taken prisoner. India, however, disputed this version of events. We detected some suspicious movement near the LoC inside our territory and the challengers from our side fired, said Lieutenant-Colonel Rajesh Kalia, a spokesperson for the Indian army. Late last month, Pakistan complained that unprovoked Indian fire had led to the death of Sepoy Asim Iqbal in the Nazia Peer sector, near the town of Rawlakote. India, however, said the firing began in response to an infiltration attempt. Experts say the fighting is driven by both sides jockeying for tactical advantage along the Line of Control-a process in turn underpinned by the need of Indian troops to dominate possible infiltration routes, and the Pakistan armys efforts to deny them those vantage positions. Last year, in October, an escalatory spiral developed when Pakistan complained of new Indian border works at Charunda, in Uri. India responded that the works were purely defensive, intended to prevent illegal border crossings among them, one of an elderly villager who left Charunda to be with her sons across the Line of Control. The unresolved dispute led to exchanges of fire, which eventually escalated into shelling and the killings of soldiers on both sides. The November 2003 ceasefire, Indian diplomatic sources say, was based on an unwritten agreement, which in essence stipulated that neither side would reinforce its fortifications along the Line of Control a measure first agreed to after the 1971 war. In 2006, the two sides exchanged drafts for a formal agreement but the talks have stalled.
Despite Nawaz Sharifs promise,

Pakistan army is funding anti-India jihad
The question before New Delhi now isnt whether or not to talk with Pakistan: talking wont cost anything other than a few air fares and hotel rooms, but unless theres a clearly thought through compellance strategy, it wont work either.
Praveen Swami Aug 8, 2013
n the autumn of 2008, President Asif Ali Zardari unveiled a dramatic, new road-map for peace. India has never been a threat to Pakistan, he told the Wall Street Journal. He called the Islamist insurgents in Kashmir terrorists. He spoke of a future where Pakistani factories would feed Indias huge cement needs, Pakistani ports helped decongest Indias clogged ones.
New Delhi loves the talk. In an interview to journalist Harinder Baweja, Sharifs special envoy Sartaj Aziz said it had agreed to resume talks without insisting on progress in the 26/11 case, where the trial has been stalled since the judge hearing it abandoned his court-room, citing concerns for his safety. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh bet big on peace with Pakistan and almost clinched the deal, before it all went up in flames on 26/11. He hopes to snatch the prize out of the embers-and is betting Sharif will help him. Itll only work, though, if Pakistans all-powerful army wants the same thing-and to know if it does, we need to know what its generals want. For the last two decades, the Pakistan Army has been helpfully answering that question for us.
Not that many weeks later, Ajmal Kasaab and nine other Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists sailed out of one of those ports, Karachi, headed for Mumbai. Indias government, mired in a fresh crisis sparked off by the killings of five soldiers in an ambush along the Line of Control, ought be considering this cautionary tale. Ever since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took office, he has been promising to revitalise his countrys crisis-ridden relationship with India. Sharif told CNN-IBNs Karan Thapar he wanted enhanced trade and energy ties, a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Kashmir, and promised to make sure that the Pakistani soil is not used for any such [terrorist] designs against India.
Every two years, its general headquarters publishes a bulky collection of essays by senior officers, called The Green Book. From the very first essay in the current Green Book, it becomes clear the Pakistani officer class maniacal suspiciousness of India hasnt stilled. Brigadier Umar Farooq Durranis Treatise on Indian-backed Psychological Warfare Against Pakistan, asserts that the Research and Analysis Wing funds many Indian newspapers and even television channels, such as Zee Television, which is considered to be its media headquarters to wage psychological war. The creation of [the] South Asian Free Media Association a few years back, Brigadier Farooq claims, was a step in the same direction. Even the eminent scholar Ayesha Siddiqas work, he insists, is a classical example of psychological war against
Pakistan. The most subtle form of this psychological war, the Brigadier states, is found in movies where Muslim and Hindu friendship is screened within [sic.] the backdrop of melodrama. Indian soaps and movies are readily welcomed in most households in Pakistan. The effects desired to be achieved through this is to undermine the Two National Theory [as] being a personal obsession of [Muhammad Ali] Jinnah. Had the Green Books not been official publications, none of this ought to have been a cause of worry. There is, after all, no shortage of delusional paranoiacs on the eastern side of the India-Pakistan border either, in and outside the armed forces. From the Pakistan Army chief himself, though, we know ideas like those of Brigadier Durrani are considered worthy of serious consideration. In his foreword to the 2010 edition, General Kayani asserts that the essays provide an effective forum for the leadership to reflect on, identity and define the challenges faced by the Pakistan army, and share possible ways of overcoming them. Language of the kind that runs through the 2010 Green Book pervades earlier editions too. In 2002, as Pakistan faced up to the looming war between its armed forces and their onetime jihadist allies, the Green Book focused on low-intensity warfare. Brigadier Shahid Hashmat, typically, argued that the threat of low-intensity conflicts should be considered as the most serious matter at [the] national level. Thus, he went on, all national agencies and resources must be directed concurrently for launching an effective and robust response against this threat. The blame for the crisis imposed on Pakistan by religious sectarian groups and jihadists, though, is firmly placed on India. Lieutenant-Colonel Inayatullah Nadeem Butt, using ideas nearidentical to those in the current Green Book, asserted that India has been aggressively involved in subverting the minds of youth through planned propaganda and luring them towards subversive activities.
Even as they considered how to fight religious sectarian groups and revolutionary jihadists, the officers who contributed to the 2002 Green Book thus focussed on imposing punitive costs on India. Brigadier Muhammad Zia, for example, noted that India is highly volatile on its internal front due to numerous vulnerabilities which, if agitated, accordingly could yield results out of proportion to the efforts put in. In similar vein, Major Ijaz Ahmad advocated that [the] Inter-Services Intelligence should launch low profile operations in Indian-held Kashmir and should not allow the freedom movement to die down. Linguistic, social, religious and communal diversities in India, the officer continued, should be exploited carefully and imaginatively. Put another way, even as they considered tactics to defeat insurgents in Pakistan, the officer corps also discussed sponsoring insurgencies in India, to tie down their arch-adversary. General Pervez Musharraf, then Pakistans military ruler, described the 2002 Green Book, as a valuable document for posterity. He was more prescient than anyone might have imagined, and than hed likely have wished for.. For an understanding of where the India-Pakistan relationship stands today, we need to go back 2002the year India and Pakistan ended the gigantic military standoff on their borders which began after the Jaish-e-Muhammad attack on Parliament House in New Delhi. Even though the prospect of nuclear war appeared to have successfully deterred India from attacking, Pakistans military came to the conclusion that its country just couldnt afford another crisis. In addition, the United Statesknowing that an India-Pakistan crisis would complicate its own position in Afghanistancame down hard on Islamabads patronage of jihadists. Lieutenant-General Moinuddin Haider, General Pervez Musharrafs interior minister, told the scholar George Perkovich he had said Mr President, your economic plan will not work, people will not invest, if you dont get rid of extremists. Pushed by his generals, and prodded by the
United States, Musharraf authorised secret meetings to explore how future crisis might be averted. The two governments worked out the terms of a ceasefire along the Line of Control, bringing an end to lethal artillery exchanges that had claimed hundreds of lives. LieutenantGeneral Ehsan-ul-Haq, the then-Inter Services Intelligence Directorate chief, met with his Research and Analysis Wing counterpart, CD Sahay, to discuss cross-border terrorism. RAW, on one occasion, even supplied communications intelligence to the ISI on a plot to target Musharraf, earning it a thank-you message. Perhaps the most important axis of secret diplomacy, though, involved the hand-picked special envoys of Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh, SK Lambah, and his Pakistani counterpart, Tariq Aziz. From unsigned notes revealed in 2009, we know the two men agreed to a four point deal: the transformation of the Line of Control into a border, though with adjustments to rationalise access to both countries forward positions; free movement across the LOC; greater federal autonomy for both sides of Jammu and Kashmir; and phased cutbacks of troops as jihadist violence declined. It wasnt quite a done deal: though India was willing to devolve power to sub-regional and regional bodies across Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan said it needed more time to discuss devolution of powers in the Northern Areasa region Islamabad argues shouldnt be treated as part of the pre-1947 Princely state. Lambah wanted limited cross-border cooperative management of assets like watersheds, forests and glaciers; Aziz called for a more expansive joint management of Jammu and Kashmir. Key questions, like the sequencing of the four points, do not appear to have been discussedand neither side wanted to go public. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Kashmiri secessionist leader, was hopeful. It is September 2007, he said, that India and Pakistan are looking at in terms of announcing something on Kashmir. They didnt: Manmohan Singh asked for time until the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections that year to go public; then Musharrafs political
fortunes declined. Then, Pakistan new army chief, Parvez Ashfaq Kayani, backed off, saying he couldnt afford to be charged by Islamists of treachery. Now, the wheels turning full circle: the United States is leaving Afghanistan, and subcontracting the task of keeping the peace in Afghanistan to the ISI. Pakistans own army is besiegedand hopes to win back some of its legitimacy among its old Islamist clients by patronising anti-India jihad. The question before New Delhi now isnt whether or not to talk with Pakistan: talking wont cost anything other than a few air fares and hotel rooms, but unless theres a clearly thought through compellance strategy, it wont work either. The generals understand that a better relationship with India is in their best interests. However, they also know that peace will mean confrontation with the very substantial Islamist constituency in Pakistan, and, perhaps more important, eventually giving up their own privileged position in its polity. To do that needs a proper incentive structure-without with, a simmering low-grade crisis with India suits the generals just fine. For fairly obvious reasons, though, this is easier talked about than done. Indias own options arent huge. A serious crisis with Pakistan would damage Indias real strategic goal, which isnt the Line of Control or Kashmir, but achieving as close to double digit growth as possible for as long as possible. War would set back national efforts to reduce the strategic gap with the real power in Asia-China-for years. Prime Minister Vajpayee and Prime Minister Singh both understood this. Put simply, the lesson from Poonch is this: a ten-year peace process, centred around the strategic happenstance of the United States active presence in the region, is drawing to a close. Its time to go back to the drawing board. In the future, India will need to use the stick to persuade Pakistans recalcitrant generals that peace is worth their while. It needs to wield the stick very carefully, though, so it doesnt come crashing down on its own foot.
Why J&K attacks show India needs
a strong Afghanistan policy

Last nights attack on the Indian mission in Jalalabad wasnt a stray incident. It reflects Pakistani strategy to evict India from Afghanistan, and escalate tensions on the Line of Control. New Delhi needs to act-and fast.
Praveen Swami Aug 6, 2013
or over an hour, the mangled body of one of the men whod tried to blow up the Indian consulate in Jalalabad lay on the street, surrounded by a sullen crowd of local residents. Nine small children had died in the explosion, which took place while they were walking down the street on their way to religious studies classes in the local mosque. Everyone was staring, a witness recalls, as if they wanted to will the dead man back to life, so they could beat him to death again. Then, a little boy in a a light-blue shalwar-kameez emerged from the crowd, and calmly walked up to the dead body. He undid the drawstrings on his trousers, and urinated on the corpse. The crowd cheered. Three hours flight-time away from Jalalabad, United States diplomats are trying to hammer out a peace deal with Taliban negotiators at the plush Four Seasons Hotel on Dohas upmarket Corniche. Last month, the Taliban shut down their new political office in Doha, following furious Afghan protests. But the talks have quietly continued. Indias government, following the western lead, has been betting theyll lead to a peace deal before the United States draws-down its forces in Afghanistan next year. Last nights murderous ambush in Poonch, where Pakistan army irregulars are thought to have organised the ambush which claimed the lives of five Indian soldiers, shows that hope is self-delusion. The Poonch attack is among the first gusts of the storm brewing across the Hindu Kush to touch home.. The attack on the Indian consulate served notice to New Delhi that Afghanistans future is more likely to re-
semble the Jalalabad street than the Doha Corniche. For India, the choices it now makes in Afghanistan will have critical consequences, especially in Kashmir but the government is shutting its eyes, and hoping it all turns out to be a bad dream. For the first time since the near-war of 20012002, as Firstpost recently reported, losses of Indian security force personnel have risen relative to the precious year. The underlying reason is simple: as the United States prepares to pull out of Afghanistan, it is less less able to push Pakistan to rein-in jihadist groups operating against India. For its part, the Pakistan army has good reason to resume low-grade hostilities against India, hoping to regain some legitimacy with elements of the jihadist movement who have turned against it in recent years. It hopes to install a client government in Kabul, evict India from the picture and resume its efforts to use covert warfare as a tool to tie down its increasingly powerful neighbour. In December, Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed told members of the secessionist All-Parties Hurriyat Conference that he intended to revive operations once the United States was out of Afghanistan. He publicly warned, in February, that just as America had to run away, then India, you will have to leave Kashmir. For weeks before the Jalalabad attack, government sources have told Firstpost, there had been multiple intelligence warnings on Indian diplomatic facilities in Kabul, Kandhahar and Jalalabad. Earlier this year, India Todays SauCopyright 2012 Firstpost
rabh Shukla has reported, a high-level Indian delegation led by Deputy National Security Advisor Nehchal Sandhu suggested enhanced security measures for new ambassador Amar Sinha. Indian and Afghan investigators believe the attack on the consulate only failed because of poor planning and reconnaissance. The three suicide bombers, driving an explosives-laden Toyota Corolla car, were stopped at an Afghan police checkpoint some 30 metres from the consulate gate. Two of the men emerged from the car, and began to walk towards the checkpoint. Even as they moved forward, though, the suicide-bomber inside the car detonated the vehicle setting off the suicide vest on a second attacker. Police at the checkpoint opened fire, killing the third. In several recent strikes, jihadist assault teams stormed their targets taking advantage of the shock and confusion caused by the initial attack among them, the July attack on a DynCorp-run guest house which claimed the lives of Indian nationals John Martis, Sandeep Jilaji, Naveen Kumar Gurudi and Kaushik Chakraborty. Near-identical tactics were used to strike Central Intelligence Agency offices and the Presidential palace in June even as President Hamid Karzai was holding a press conference. For reasons we dont know yet, the Jalalabad attackers didnt get it right. Like the two past attacks on Indias embassy in Kabul, there are even odds that Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence was involved: a murderous attack in 2008, the New York Times Mark Mazetti and Eric Schmitt reported, was directly facilitated by Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence, while Afghan authorities blamed the 2010 strike on it. In each of those past instances, India itself remained quiet, choosing not to make Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs pursuit of a grand peace bargain with Pakistan contingent on terrorism. The strategy has failed but there are things New Delhi can do to exert pressure. First as Firstpost revealed recently, President Karzai has given New Delhi a lethal-weapons shopping
list, calling in Afghanistans entitlements under the Strategic Partnership Agreement the two countries have signed. Afghanistan wants 105 millimetre artillery, as well as helicopters and transport aircraft all second-hand equipment India can supply at a relatively low cost. India has so far denied the requests, fearing it will complicate the relationship with Pakistan and the United States. Instead, it has granted $100 million in economic aid to Afghanistan, in addition to $2 billion already committed. The aid has won friends ordinary Afghans often tell visitors that while Pakistan gives them suicide bombers, India is giving them hospitals. Yet, beefing up Afghanistans armed forces will send Pakistan an important signal of intent. Then, India needs to make clear it wont tolerate a peace deal with the Taliban that undermines Afghanistans constitution and democracy. In 2014s presidential elections, the likely candidates of the major opposition blocs, the National Front and National Coalition, will likely be figures friendly to India ranging from former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah to Hanif Atmar. Karzai-linked candidates are more sympathetic to Pakistan but more Indian military aid will lock them into the relationship. Finally, India can adopt a more muscular posture on the Line of Control. Estimates suggest about a third of Pakistans 500,000-strong army is committed to counter-terrorist operations in its North-West. Indian troops have given at least as good as theyve got on the Line of Control, staging several eye-for-an-eye raids across the Line of Control to punish Pakistani attacks. The governments been loath, though, to up the stakes, for fear for the ceasefire falling apart. If India reconsiders that strategy, though, it can threaten to make Pakistan more vulnerable to domestic terrorism by forcing it to pull troops eastwards. The one option India doesnt have is to do nothing. For a decade now, India has ridden on the back of historically-anomalous geo-strategic springtime: the restraining presence of the United States, a war between Pakistan and the jihadists it long patronised, and a favourable international climate, driven by record economic growth. Now, events suggest, a harsh winter could again be descending.
Aftermath of an attack
Ground report: Poonch residents

fear war after Pak violates ceasefire
The killing of five soldiers in Chakanbagh has been seen as yet another sign of the continuous tension between India and Pakistan, but its impact on the people, who had enjoyed the benefits of an unwritten ceasefire between the two nations, can be seen the most.
Sameer Yasir Aug 8, 2013
oonch: The tragic killing of five Indian army soldiers wont only affect their immediate families, but will also have an impact on the thousands of residents who live in the border area along the line of control in Poonch sector.
ficer and four jawans were killed at around 2 am early in the morning. One of the injured soldiers was airlifted to Jammu for specialized treatment. Colonel Kalia also said that the ambush might have been laid so that militants could infiltrate from the other side. The villagers living along the line of control, are now apprehensive about what the future holds. Peer Zahir Ahmad, 55, a resident of Khari village told Firstpost that before the ceasefire they had to keep migrating because of the continuous shelling along the LoC, and were tired of living nomadic, unsettled lives. With the ceasefire between the two nations in 2003 things had improved, we had even destroyed the mud houses which were primarily build due to frequent firing. We have constructed concrete houses now. But after todays incident no one knows what will happen. The future is uncertain, he said. Another resident, Abudul Hamid Malik ,43, says he is even afraid of sending his children to school as it is exposed to shelling. After the tension erupted again on LoC, I stopped my children from going to school because I dont know when a shell could land up their and kill them. If the shell lands here in my home at least I will die with my family, he said. Imran Ahamd lives in a small hamlet near Chakanbagh and says that after the 2003 ceaseCopyright 2012 Firstpost
A sudden silence has over taken the Khari village in Poonch, Western Jammu, after the killing of five soldiers in an early morning ambush by heavily armed men from across the line of control on Tuesday. The incident happened between Cheeta and Begum post, almost three kilometers north of Chakandabad, a famous LoC trade point between India and Pakistan. The Army spokesperson in Udhampur, Colonel Kalia, told Firstpost that twenty heavily armed men along with a few men in Pakistani uniform had ambushed a patrol party of the 21 Bihar regiment, in which one non commissioned of-
fire, the villagers alongside the line of control had lived in peace, as there were no firing incidents. After the death of two soldiers in the Mendhar sector this year, we were very afraid that any thing could happen at any time. And now we might have to migrate once again to other parts of Jammu, he told Firstpost. The killing of five soldiers in Chakanbagh has been seen as yet another sign of the continuous tension between India and Pakistan, and could well be a step back in the relations between the two sides. But its impact on the people, who had enjoyed the benefits of an unwritten ceasefire agreement between the two nations, can be seen the most. Syed Mulak Ali, a migrant from Mendhar where a soldier was mutilated in January, says a lot of people who had fled the area during fighting, had returned in 2003 after de-mining operations were completed by the army in Samba, Ramgargh, R S Pora and Kaluchak. But in Poonch, where the entire forward areas running parallel to the LOC are heavily mined, they remained refugees for ever. But despite that we went back to village and started living again. We were already apprehensive and scared about the developments talking place and the ceasefire violations by Pakistan and now our fears have come true, he said. Army Chief General Bikram Singh is expected to arrive in the valley soon, where he will hold discussions withChief Minister Omar Abdullah and Governor NN Vohra, senior Army sources said.
Patrolling and security have been heightened along the border with Pakistan after todays attack, a senior Army officer said, adding that troops have been asked to be on high alert in view of the apprehension of more such attacks along the LoC. Col Kalia told Firstpost that the ambush may have come as retaliation against the effective counter infiltration grid on LoC, which has ensured 17 infiltration bids foiled this year resulting in killing of a total of 13 hardcore Pakistan trained militants. The numbers of such attempts have doubled this year in comparison to the corresponding period of 2012. Pak Armys desperation is also evident in the substantial increase in the number of Cease Fire Violations this year. There have been 57 Cease Fire Violations this year which is almost 80% more than the violations last year, he said. Tanveer khan a resident of Sona Gali, where Pakistani troops killed the two Indian soldiers says his worst night mare had come true. We have to now restrict our movement and, who knows, may be migrate from this place. It seems this place will never be at peace. He says. The villagers here say that they were only able to return to normal life in 2003, but said that after this incident, they were afraid that the peace that they had only just come to know had ended.
strategically shelve Pakistan

Americans will object on Pakistans behalf but surely they understand India cant keep absorbing attacks from both sides in Afghanistan as on its Jalalabad consulate and along the LOC.
Seema Sirohi Aug 7, 2013 ashington The killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistanis along the line of control has elicited two kinds of responses in India one naively hopeful and the other belligerently aggressive. One talks of continuing the dialogue with Pakistan no matter what happens on the ground, the other, coming largely from the opposition BJP and its supporters, talks of outright revenge. Yashwant Sinha, a BJP stalwart and a former minister, got so carried away, he said the current Indian government was sponsoring Pakistan.
Why India simply has to
A more surreal scenario would be hard to imagine. What India needs is to strategically shelve Pakistan and create other options and pressure points. An obvious one is to take a new look at Afghanistan and reconsider strengthening the Afghan National Army, if not by supplying weapons then by helping in procurement. Americans will object on Pakistans behalf but surely they understand India cant keep absorbing attacks from both sides in Afghanistan as on its Jalalabad consulate and along the LOC. These attacks will continue as will the inaction of the international community despite the intercepts and ISIs fingerprints. Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistans former intelligence chief, told me that for Pakistan it is vital to evict India or Indian influence and access from Pakistans western borders. Pakistan has said it privately, publicly and repeatedly. India has to up its game on its own. Saleh said India must create space for itself in international diplomacy vis--vis Afghanistan. While western countries have gone out of their way to appease Pakistan and find ways to accommodate their interests, India is hardly taken seriously at the international level. Indeed. Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif may appear sincere about improving ties with India. His overtures to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are serious, according to well-informed officials. Singh has responded positively, apparently agreeing to resuming dialogue without
Neither extreme serves Indias national interests. The first imposes a high burden on elected leaders that they continue engaging Pakistans civilian government even though it exercises little or no power over the countrys foreign policy, the other advocates a foolhardy rush to war. Meanwhile, the Pakistan army functions in utter disregard of its civilian leaders and activates its proxies against India, the Indian army revises its statements under political guidance.
linking it to progress on bringing the Mumbai attackers to justice. But ever since Sharif made his desire to improve relations with India known, he has faced an onslaught of negative press and an ISI-inspired campaign at home. He is being impeded at every step just as Asif Ali Zardari was five years ago. Heightened anti-India rhetoric in Pakistans Urdu press is on the increase. Silly claims that India conducted the Mumbai attacks on itself are being discussed even on serious English-language channels. So powerful is the campaign that even moderate Pakistanis have begun retracting from advocating peace with India. Reports say that Ramzaan this year brought a nasty harvest of anti-India
speeches from mosques, especially from Lahores Al-Aqsa mosque along with a bounty of hateful SMS messages. For Sharif to work against this tide and deliver on any peace moves with India is unlikely in the near term. India can hope that he outmaneuvers his military, but that would require a miracle. His decision to go after former ruler and army chief, Pervez Musharraf, the man who ousted him, has complicated the picture with the current chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. At this time Kayani couldnt care less about peace with India he wants to keep the pressure on from both ends via Taliban proxies in Afghanistan and via regulars on the LOC. That leaves very little space for peace making.
Poonch killings: How US is pulling the strings of India-Pak relations

Is the United States is already covertly choreographing India-Pakistan bilateral relations and preventing a flare-up in the subcontinent. Indications are that Uncle Sam may actually have started pulling the strings in New Delhi and Islamabad much faster than Indians and Pakistanis would have imagined.
Rajeev Sharma Aug 7, 2013
t doesnt take rocket science to conclude two things from the barbaric killing of five Indian soldiers in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir on 6 August. One, the India-Pakistan process of resumption of dialogue that would have started in a few weeks would now remain frozen and a counter attack by the livid Indian Army cannot be ruled out. Two, it will be a matter of time before the Americans publicly make noises on the need for a cooling-off between India and Pakistan while the State Departments back-room boys work the phones in New Delhi and Islamabad.
India has a problem on its hands. The mother of all Confidence Building Measures between India and Pakistan the military ceasefire which came into force in 2003 has been torn into shreds by Pakistan. The Line of Control is fast degenerating into a Line of No Control with the latest incident jolting the Indian political and military leaderships when the Indian armys wounds were still raw since decapitation of one of its soldiers in the same sector in January this year. To rub salt in Indian wounds, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had given an Rs 5 lakh reward to one Anwar Khan, a resident of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, who had beheaded Lance Naik Hemraj Singh on 8 January. An Indo-Pak cooling-off period suits the newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his government more than India at this time. India can make things more difficult for Pakistan even without raising the specter of war and mobilizing its strike forces along the Indo-Pak border that the Vajpayee government had done in the aftermath of the terror attack on Indian parliament in 2001. All India has to do is to deploy more soldiers on its western borders. This will inevitably trigger concern in Rawalpindi and Pakistan will be forced to come up with a matching response, thinning its troops deployment in its western borders with Afghanistan, setting off alarm bells in Washington. A cash-strapped Pakistan will have to pay through its nose for redeployment of troops at a time when Nawaz Sharifs two biggest and immediate priorities are to heal up the Pakistani economy and invest on a war-footing
But the bigger picture here is: whether the United States is already covertly choreographing India-Pakistan bilateral relations and preventing a flare-up in the subcontinent. Indications are that Uncle Sam may actually have started pulling the strings in New Delhi and Islamabad much faster than Indians and Pakistanis would have imagined.
in the power and infrastructure sectors to take his country out of its worst energy crisis. However, the UPA government is unlikely to take this step. The American factor is of utmost importance here. The United States will not allow a situation whereby Pakistan withdraws its troops from its Afghanistan border for deployment along the India-Pakistan border at a time when the drawdown of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan is scheduled to begin in February 2014. Needless to say, the UPA government will not take a step which Americans do not approve of. In fact, one of the high points of Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs expected bilateral visit to the US next month from the American point of view would be to thrash out a roadmap for dealing with the Af-Pak region post 2014. One has to catch the fine nuances of Defence Minister AK Antonys suo moto statement in both houses of parliament earlier today. While narrating the Poonch incident, Antony said: The ambush was carried out by approximately 20 heavily armed terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms. This is rather queer. Nowhere has Antony blamed the Pakistan Army for the incident! All that he has alluded to the identity of the perpetrators is that these were heavily armed terrorists who were accompanied by persons dressed in Pakistan army uniforms. Now lets have a look at an input which is even queerer. Barely an hour before Antonys statement in parliament, the defence ministrys Jammu-based PRO SN Acharya issued a press statement saying that Pakistan Border Action Team (BAT) had attacked Indian soldiers in Poonch. This two-paragraph press statement is worth reproducing in full. Here it is: A patrol of Indian Army comprising of one Non Commissioned Officer and five Other Ranks was ambushed by a Pak Border Action Team close to the Line of Control in Punch Sector of J&K early morning on 6 August 2013. In the ensu-
ing firefight, five Indian soldiers were martyred. The ambush was carried out by approximately 20 heavily armed terrorists along with soldiers of Pak Army. This action is a likely consequence of frustrations of the terrorists tanzeeems and Pak Army due to successful elimination of 19 hardcore terrorists in the recent months of July and August along the Line of Control and in the hinterland of J&K. The effective counter infiltration grid on the Line of Control has ensured 17 infiltration bids foiled this year resulting in killing of a total of 13 hardcore Pak trained terrorists. The numbers of such attempts have doubled this year in comparison to the corresponding period of 2012. Pak Armys desperation is also evident in the substantial increase in the number of Cease Fire Violations this year. There have been 57 Cease Fire Violations this year which is almost 80% more than the violations last year. Significantly, the Indian defence ministry withdrew this statement some 90 minutes later and substituted it with Antonys statement in parliament! The vital difference in the two statements is that the defence ministrys eventually withdrawn statement gave some details of the ground situation and was probably closer to the truth while Antonys statement was marked by diplomatese. Not unsurprisingly, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and the Ministry of External Affairs have maintained a studied silence on the issue. So how does one connect the dots? Does it mean that Uncle Sam was already feverishly at work with the South Block mandarins and ensured that Antony does not come up with a hawkish statement in parliament and squarely blames the Pakistan Army for the outrageous killings of Indian soldiers? This is a nebulous area and the behind-thescene parleys that took place in the South Block may not come to light anytime soon. Perhaps one will have to wait for help from WikiLeaks in this regard as and when Julian Assange and his team shed light on this episode.
India, Pak cant treat each

other as untouchables: Khurshid
We are vigilant. We are awake. We are conscious. We are watchful, Khurshid told CNN-IBN when asked to respond to criticism that the UPA government had fallen asleep at the foreign policy wheel.
FP Politics Aug 7, 2013 ndias foreign minister Salman Khurshid called the death of the five soldiers at the Line of Control unacceptable and extremely distressing, and said the government was in control of the situation but would carefully consider a host of factors before deciding on an appropriate course of action.
Is the Congress with India or with Pakistan? They should come clear on it, he said. Khurshid said that the rise in the number of incursions along the LoC had not gone unnoticed and reiterated that the government would act in the national interest. According to him, all the diplomatic processes that can be used in such a situation have been put in motion and Pakistan has been made aware of Indias concerns. The next step, he said, was to wait for Pakistans response and then evaluate the situation at that time. We have a categorical commitment from Pakistan that they will not allow their territory to be used for attacks on India, Khurshid said. We expect them to deliver on this commitment. Refusing to be drawn into specifics because of the current session of Parliament, the minister completely rejected the oppositions stand that AK Anthonys statement in Parliament left Pakistan with an escape route. He made what was in the circumstances the most prudent and careful and sensible statement based on facts that were available to him at that time, Khurshid said. If and when new information was gathered, the situation would then be re-evaluated. He also criticised the BJP for politicising the event by saying the UPA government was weak on national security, calling it irresponsible and saying there are none so blind as those who will not see. As for what counts as the national interest, that
We are vigilant. We are awake. We are conscious. We are watchful, Khurshid told CNNIBN when asked to respond to criticism that the UPA government had fallen asleep at the foreign policy wheel. The killing of Indian five soldiers along the Line of Control in Poonch by a group of around 20 men comprising both militants and Pakistani soldiers created an outrage yesterday, and led to angry scenes in both houses of Parliament. Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha had slammed the government in the Lok Sabha saying it was high time the country responded back to Pakistan in the same manner, calling for a debate in Parliament on the issue.
would be a combination of perceptions, the governments analysis of the threats to national security and its strategic imperatives, Khurshid said. And whatever steps the government takes would be based on careful analysis and not a knee-jerk reaction. He pointed that just because Pakistan and India do not agree on certain issues does not mean that the two countries should treat each other as untouchables. Neighbours have to find a way of talking to each other, he said. He reiterated that the government is taking the situation seriously though it would not be deciding on a course of action in one night. We cant just shut our eyes to it, Khursheed said. We cant proceed as if nothing has happened. We have taken some steps. Lets see what the response to those are. Following Khursids comments, former Army chief General VP Malik told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion on the issue that it was unbelievable that Pakistan could have no knowledge of the attack because of the proximity of the two forces in that part of the Line of Control.
This ambush took place in an area where there are Pakistan and Indian troops facing each other at a distance of 200 or 250 yards, Malik said. He also warned that both armies tended to give as good as they got on the Line of Control, which could lead to a limited skirmish or a limited war (as happened in 1999), which is why the Indian government should be prepared for such a situation. We need to make it clear we can retaliate, he said. KC Singh, a former Indian diplomat, said a cautious approach was the best approach in the situation and that bickering in Parliament is something that should be avoided. He said there was no reason that discussions could not go on between Pakistan and India on those topics in which both sides did agree, such as trade, while leaving out contentious issues such as Kashmir. He also pointed out that terrorism in the region spiked when the former USSR withdrew from Afghanistan and that the United States is withdrawing from the region is another inflexion point.
The battle over AK Antonys statement
LoC killings: Will BJP make PM
pay for Antony statement?

The BJP is showing no signs of taking on the UPA government over the Defence Ministers statement in Parliament.
Sanjay Singh Aug 7, 2013
he political furore over Defence Minister AK Antonys statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers along the Line of Control is unlikely to die out any time soon with the BJP intending to make the most of it to pin down the government. The government may find it difficult to explain what prompted the top brass in the UPA government do away with the damning indictment on Pakistan Army, something that was initially done in a statement issued by the Press Information Bureau (Defence Wing) of the Government.
Ranks was ambushed by a Pak Border Action Team close to the Line of Control in Punch Sector of J&K early morning on 6 August 2013. In the ensuing firefight, five Indian soldiers were martyred. The ambush was carried out by approximately 20 heavily armed terrorists along with soldiers of Pak Army. This action is a likely consequence of frustrations of the terrorists tanzeeems and Pak Army due to successful elimination of 19 hardcore terrorists in the recent months of July and August along the Line of Control and in the hinterland of J&K. The effective counter infiltration grid on the Line of Control has ensured 17 infiltration bids foiled this year resulting in killing of a total of 13 hardcore Pak trained terrorists. The numbers of such attempts have doubled this year in comparison to the corresponding period of 2012. Pak Armys desperation is also evident in the substantial increase in the number of Cease Fire Violations this year. There have been 57 Cease Fire Violations this year which is almost 80% more than the violations last year. After AK Antony made his suo moto statement in both Houses of Parliament saying that the ambush was carried out by approximately 20 heavily armed terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms, the army changed its stance. The PIB (Defence Wing) was forced to toe the political leadership line on the subject. Antony effectively changed the Indian army version of incident The words persons dressed in Pakistan army uniform changed the whole connotation, sugCopyright 2012 Firstpost
A big question is why Antony went with the now controversial statement despite being briefed by the DGMO that the attack involved Pakistan Army personnel along with 20 heavily armed terrorists. In its first statement, the PIB (Defence Wing) stated: A patrol of Indian Army comprising of one Non Commissioned Officer and five Other
gesting that the intruders were not Pakistan army regulars but could be terrorists or nonstate actors wearing Pakistan army uniforms. A fact that was pointed out by Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha, but something the Defence Minister refused to accept. As a result of the ministers statement, the PIB (Defence Wing) issued a second statement titled REGRET & REVISED PRESS RELEASE. In it it stated: 1. The following Press Release supersedes the earlier Press Release ( No. PRO/Jammu/425/ Aug /2013 ) forwarded from this office. 2. You are requested to follow the new one. 3. Inconvenience is deeply regretted. It then attached a mirror of the statement made by Antony in Parliament. Incidentally, both the PIB statements were signed by SN Acharya. Despite this correction, the BJP today moved a privilege motion against Defence Minister in Lok Sabha and has sought an apology from him to the nation. Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Antony were present in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively they chose to remain silent over the issue. This despite being accused of the Defence Minister attempting to shield the Pakistan army for unknown reasons. There is an argument that if Antony had referred to the Pakistan army in his statement then the incident would have been construed as intrusion of Pakistan into Indian territory. An admission of this would have put Manmohan Singh and his top ministerial colleagues under pressure to deal more firmly with Pakistan.
The first impact would be on the possible talks between the Indian Prime Minister and his Pakistan counterpart Minister Nawaz Sharif during their meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN next month. The BJP is now opposing any form of dialogue with Pakistan, least of all at the prime ministerial level. In contrast, dismissing the incident in Poonch as an infiltration attempt by terrorists would not have that kind of impact on foreign policy or diplomatic talks. But the advisor to the Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz spoke of the talks being on till last night. An example of just how serious the next meeting will be is evident from the fact that Nawaz Sharifs special envoy Shaharyar Khan had also met Manmohan Singh at his residence, 7 Race Course Road on Monday. He delivered a letter conveying Islamabads sincere desire to move forward on improving relations with India. A Pakistan High Commission release said the Indian prime minister warmly reciprocated the sentiments expressed in the letter. Khan had also called on Salman Khurshid and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai. However, on Monday night the five Indian soldiers were killed and then came the Defence Ministers now controversial statement. In an attempt at fire fighting the Prime Minister has called top BJP leaders, BJP parliamentary party chairman LK Advani, party president Rajnath Singh and Leaders of Opposition in both Houses, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, to explain the governments position on talks with Pakistan in aftermath of fresh incident of killing of Indian jawans. But the BJP seems to have already set its mind not to relent by moving a privilege motion against Antony and demanding an apology.
did not give clean chit to Pak army

The party also rejected BJPs criticism of the government over handling of Pakistan affairs, saying war is no solution and dialogue and discussion are the only way to resolve disputes with the neigbour.
Cong defends Antony, says he
PTI, Aug 7, 2013 Noting that it was a wrong interpretation to say that the Defence Minister by his statement meant that Pakistan army was not involved in the attack along the LoC, Chacko said any attempt to twist, misinterpret or politicise the issue will be unfortunate. There is no denying the role of the Pakistani army. The Congress spokesperson added when he (Antony) said people in Pakistani Army uniform, did he not say Pakistani ArmyDid he say no Pakistani Army? Had Antony said Pakistani Army has no role?..There is no denying the role of Pakistani Army. Rejecting the contention that the Defence Minister had committed a goof-up by his statement overriding the earlier version of the Army statement, he said what happened there was terrorist plus armymen, that was his information. The Defence Minister gets information only from the Armed forces. There is no goof-up, no mistake, no contradiction. Whatever information was available with the Defence Minister, he said according to that, he said. Rejecting suggestions that Antony gave a clean chit to Pakistani Army over its role into the attack, Chacko had a dig at BJP saying we know who gave a clean chit to Pakistan and referred to Indo-Pak talks before Kargil war during NDA rule.
ew Delhi: As a political storm brewed over Defence Minister A K Antonys statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers in Poonch, Congress today maintained he did not give a clean chit to Pakistani Army in connection with the incident.
The party also rejected BJPs criticism of the government over handling of Pakistan affairs, saying war is no solution and dialogue and discussion are the only way to resolve disputes with the neigbour. Accusing the opposition party of politicising the issue for electoral gains, party spokesperson P C Chacko said anybody trying to fish in troubled waters will not succeed and reminded BJP what was the outcome of its peace initiatives with Pakistan during NDA rule.
Antonys statement on LoC killing
not changed at our behest: PMO

The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) rubbished as mischievous the reports that a statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers on the LoC was changed at its behest.
PTI, Aug 7, 2013
ew Delhi: The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) rubbished as mischievous the reports that a statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers on the LoC was changed at its behest. Such allegations being made are mischievous and have no basis, a PMO spokesman said. He was reacting to reports that the statement was changed after being drafted by the Army. While the Army statement issued in Jammu
had said the attack in Poonch was carried out by Pakistan armys Border Action Team (BAT), a statement read out by Defence Minister A K Antony in Parliament said the assault was carried out by terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniform. Sources today said the statement made by Antony was vetted by several senior officials including National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, the DGMO and some Defence Ministry officers.
LoC killings: BJP has its way,

Antony will make new statement
The government is highly likely to issue a fresh statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers along the Line of Control in Poonch, Jammu & Kashmir by Pakistani troops.
FP Politics Aug 8, 2013
After unrelenting pressure from the main opposition party, the government is highly likely to issue a fresh statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers along the Line of Control in Poonch, Jammu & Kashmir by Pakistani troops.
he victory over the Pakistan clean chit will go to the BJP.
the Prime Minister to respond to the demand, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said in a fiery session that was dominated by protests, disruptions and eventual adjournment. The government move to change its official statement came after a meeting between Congress and BJP leaders, in which the BJP had told the government that the defence ministers diluted statement was totally unacceptable. The government had reportedly assured BJP leaders that Antony would update Parliament after being briefed by army chief Bikram Singh. A big question of course, is why Antony went with the now controversial statement despite being briefed by the DGMO that the attack involved Pakistan Army personnel along with 20 heavily armed terrorists. With the PMO denying what it called mischievous reports that it had asked the defence minister to water down his statement, the slip up has been attributed to an error of judgement. According to the Hindustan Times, a senior Congress leader had told the paper, There is an error of judgement on the part of the government. It happens sometimes. Now we will see how it can be rectified. Of course, the entire incident from the Congress initial tepid reaction to the retraction of the statement comes as a massive fillip to the BJP, who have found yet another reason to attack the crumbling UPA government. As Firstpost editor Sanjay Singh pointed out on Wednesday: The tag of soft state has come back to haunt the Manmohan Singh government yet again.
Antonys statement, in which he said that the Indian jawans had been killed by persons dressed in Pakistani uniforms, caused massive outrage because, as the BJP said, it gave the neighbouring country an easy exit route by which it could deny its role in the attack. The BJP had moved a privilege motion against Defence Minister in Lok Sabha and has sought an apology from him to the nation. I demand the defence minister turn up in the house and apologise before the country for making such dubious statements on a grave incident like this. It cant be coincidence that he is not present in the house right now, so Ill ask
The killing of five Indian soldiers in an ambush by Pakistan has given the BJP a chance to refocus the debate on Congress follies on national security issues and its ineffective response to Pakistan. This has come as welcome ammunition for the BJP which thinks that this meek response will make many look up to Modis strong leadership. And with the governments about turn in the face of all that BJP pressure, it gives the opposi-
tion another vital victory point in its own battle against the Congress. One that it will undoubtedly use during future electoral campaigning for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. For now however, the more crucial thing for the Congress seems to be the smooth functioning of the parliament. With the populist Food security bill up for debate in the house, it has more to lose by letting Antonys statement stand.
Full text: How AK Antony

Defence Minister AK Antony on Thursday issued a fresh statement in Lok Sabha blaming specialist troops of the Pakistan army for the attacks along the Line of Control.
FP Staff Aug 8, 2013 efence Minister AK Antony on Thursday issued a fresh statement in Lok Sabha blaming specialist troops of the Pakistan army for the attacks along the Line of Control.
slammed Pak hand in LoC killings
obligation to report the facts as we knew them at that point of time, and my statement was based on the available information. Since then the Chief of the Army Staff has visited the area and gone into the details of the matter. It is now clear that the specialist troops of Pakistan Army were involved in this attack when a group from the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) side crossed the LC and killed our brave jawans. We all know that nothing happens from Pakistan side of the Line of Control without support, assistance, facilitation and often, direct involvement of the Pakistan Army. Those in Pakistan who are responsible for this tragedy and the brutal killing of two soldiers earlier this year should not go unpunished. Pakistan should also show determined action to dismantle the terrorist networks, organizations and infrastructure and show tangible movement on bringing those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008 to justice quickly. Naturally, this incident will have consequences on our behaviour on the Line of Control and for our relations with Pakistan. Our restraint should not be taken for granted; nor should the capacity of our Armed Forces and resolve of the Government to uphold the sanctity of the LC ever be doubted.
It is now clear that the specialist troops of Pakistan Army were involved in this attack.. Indias restraint should not be taken for granted.. the strength and capacity of our army should never be doubted, he said. Below is the full text of his statement: The brutal and unprovoked attack on an Indian patrol on our side of Line of Control (LC) on August 6, 2013 outraged us all. When I reported the incident to the House, it was Governments
Talking to Pakistan is not equal to a clean chit: Mani Shankar Aiyar

Diplomacy is about talking, Aiyar said during a panel debate on CNN-IBN. War is about not talking; allowing the guns to talk for you. While I do not know whether talks will lead to a solution, I do not think not talking will lead to a solution.
enior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar defended the UPA government from criticism that it has given Pakistan an escape route over the killing of five jawans on the Line of Control, and said that continuing to talk to Pakistan did not mean that India was giving its neighbour a free pass over the incident.
His comments came in response to criticism from the BJP, who insisted that Defence Minister AK Antonys statement in Parliament was misleading and had given Pakistan wriggle room because it did not categorically state that the men who ambushed the Indian Army patrol belonged to the Pakistan Army. The killing of Indian five soldiers along the Line of Control in Poonch by a group of around 20 men comprising both militants and Pakistani soldiers sparked massive outrage and has led to angry scenes in both houses of Parliament. Antonys statement described the men as being dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms, which Aiyar said, did not exclude the possibility of their being members of the army. The defence minister was simply making the most precise statement he could make given the information he had at the time. Anthony is expected to make another statement on the situation in Parliament today. Ravi Shankar Prasad, the deputy leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, pointed to the statement released by the Army which did categorically state that some of the intruders were Pakistan Army soldiers, and wanted to know why the defence minister had made a different statement. It is, he said, a case of the defence minister vs the armed forces. Aiyars response was to say that the title of the ministers statement still named the Pakistan Army and that in any case, the authoritative statement in Parliament cannot be given by a PRO. It can only be given by the defence minister.
Diplomacy is about talking, Aiyar said during a panel debate on CNN-IBN. War is about not talking; allowing the guns to talk for you. While I do not know whether talks will lead to a solution, I do not think not talking will lead to a solution. Aiyar pointed out that even at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the former USSR continued to talk to each other even though they disagreed on just about everything. Even today, there is dialogue between the United States and Iran, for example, or the United States and North Korea. Just because Pakistan denies that the incident on the LOC took place, does not mean India cannot voice their objects to the senior most Pakistani, he said.
When the debate turned to the issue of Aiyar being called a Pakistani agent in the Upper House on 6 August, he said that none of the opposition members came to his defence then, including Prasad, who should denounced the allegation. At that point, Prasad decided he would no longer be part of the panel, removed his mike and stormed out. Kanwar Sibal, an ex-Indian Foreign Service Official, said the spat the between the two parties was not only showing India was a splintered country but taking the focus off the main issue, which is Pakistans actions, and turning India into a laughing stock. Nobody is focusing on Pakistans denial, he said. So they will not learn any lessons or give us any explanations. Sibal called on the government to take a tough stand and hold Pakistan responsible for the Jihadist violence that had taken place. He disagreed with Aiyar on the value of dialogue What is more important? Indias security or dialogue for the sake of dialogue? and said that India should wait to uncover what Nawaz Sharifs real motives are before engaging with his government. Otherwise India runs the risk of letting Pakistan deny all the claims against them while continuing to press for what they want from India. We have been lodging strong protests for so many years and nothing has happened, he said. We need to find out what our options are.
Aiyar, of course, disagreed with him, saying India could not have a coherent foreign policy without dialogue with Pakistan. Amit Baruah, the former Pakistan correspondent for the Hindu and author of Dateline Islamabad, said the issue [of Anthonys statement] has been blown out of all proportion. An absolute non-issue has been made the central point, he said. Whether someone was wearing or not wearing a uniform was beside the point. Everyone understood that neither side could breach the Line of Control without the support or assistance of either army. The kind of hysteria that Parliament was drumming up was therefore not beneficial in anyway and leaves no room for debate. You dont talk to people because you want to say nice things to them, he said. You talk to them because you want to say hard things to them. Baruah was also critical of the BJPs attack on Antony, saying the defense minister had every right to make a statement that was different from his PRO. The attack also obfuscated the real issue, which was how to deal with a duplicitous Pakistan. The two sides trading barbs was therefore doing a disservice to the country. Democracy is under question in the kind of debates we are having in Parliament, he said.
The Pak response
its army didnt kill 5 Indian soldiers

Pakistan has said that its troops were not involved in the attack that left five personnel dead.
Full text: Pakistan Foreign Ministry says
akistan rejects Indian allegations of killing of its soldiers
Pakistan rejects the allegations carried by some sections of the Indian media of an attack across the LoC in the Poonch sector in which five Indian soldiers were claimed to have been killed. These are baseless and unfounded allegations. Our military authorities have confirmed that there had been no exchange of fire that could have resulted in such an incident. Pakistan remains committed to the ceasefire agreement of 2003 which is an important Confi-
dence Building Measure and should be respected in letter and spirit. Pakistan also urges the need for abiding by and strengthening existing military mechanisms to ensure that such illfounded reports that have the potential of vitiating the atmosphere, are avoided. Pakistan is committed to a constructive, sustained and result-oriented process of engagement with India and looks forward to an early resumption of the dialogue process. It is important that both sides make serious efforts in maintaining the positive atmosphere and avoid negative propaganda.
Pak media slams Indian rhetoric
and vitriol after LoC attack

The Pakistani media called on both Indian and Pakistani officials to desist from rhetoric and take steps to defuse rising tension along the LoC.
FP Politics Aug 8, 2013
he Pakistani media called on both Indian and Pakistani officials to desist from rhetoric and take steps to defuse rising tension along the LoC. after the killing of five Indian soldiers in Poonch has caused massive outrage in India. An editorial in the Express Tribune newspaper said that India needed to take responsibility in ensuring that peace talks do not get derailed and also commented on the anti-Pakistan
rhetoric in the Indian media. The editorial says: Rhetoric against Pakistan is flowing strong with India also saying that militants from Pakistan were trying to infiltrate Kashmir. One should mention that a day earlier, four Kashmiris on the Pakistani side of the LoC went missing and according to Indian media reports, quoting unnamed Indian Army sources, may have been killed.
It also praises the conduct of the Pakistan foreign office for reiterating its commitment to peace talks. Such incidents only reinforce the fact that the two countries must go ahead with talks. India would do well to take advantage of this and play its part in improving relations and ensuring that the peace process is not derailed, it adds. An editorial in The Nation also slams the Indian media for vitriol against Pakistan and cautions against bowing down to hawks on both sides of the border. It says: The vitriol by the Indian media and the Opposition is a sad reflection that Pakistan bashing is big business in India, and also demonstrated the hold that many radicals enjoy over the media. Charged demonstrations in front of Pakistans High Commission in New Delhi will excite mob sentiment that must not be allowed to sway reason. Peace is the only option that is available. And hence it must be given a fair chance to show the miracles it can perform. The Dawn newspaper for its part, has written a thought provoking editorial questioning why the timing of such attacks are always before or after key meetings between Indian and Pakistani officials, and occur just when relations between the two countries are beginning to look healthy. However it also questions the motives of the BJP, saying The truth is that, with the nod of the intelligence set-up, the BJP is trying to nip any peace talks with Pakistan before the coming elections.
The overwhelming sentiment in the English language media in Pakistan is that the two nations need to tone down the rhetoric and talk. It must be noted, however, that there is very little to no questioning of the Pakistani army, with all the media understandably sticking to the official version of events. Whether advice on continuing talks will be heeded by the powers that be in Pakistan is another matter altogether. As this Firstpost piece notes: One way to look at the killing of the Indian soldiers could be as an act by the Pakistan army to show the civilian government, who calls the shots in the country and who wields greater power over the country. The strongest possible way the Pakistan army could register the sense of its power with the government, is by hitting where it hurts the most. If Sharif fails to make the Army accountable to its own government, how does India expect to benefit from talks with the government head? One solution, as noted in this Times of India report, would be attempting to initiate talks with the Pakistan Army itself. However, with the Indian Army taking the brunt of its Pakistan counterparts violence, that again might not be in the best interests of the morale of the Indian Army. Caught in a typical catch 22 situation, all eyes and electoral decisions, however, will be on the UPA to see what it does next. Because nothing flares emotions in India across classes as Pakistan and how India deals with it.
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Pak LoC attacks:

Is the time for diplomacy over?

The Poonch provocation

The warning signs

The battle over AK Antonys statement

The Pak response

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The Poonch provocation

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when Pakistani troops attacked

Army says jawans were on routine patrol

Who said what on Pak LoC violation

From Modi to Omar Abdullah:

UPA has failed to secure

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The warning signs

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Exclusive: Dirty war on LoC

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Exclusive: Details of LoC killings that came before Poonch ambush

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Despite Nawaz Sharifs promise,

Why J&K attacks show India needs

a strong Afghanistan policy

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Ground report: Poonch residents

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strategically shelve Pakistan

Why India simply has to

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Poonch killings: How US is pulling the strings of India-Pak relations

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India, Pak cant treat each

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The battle over AK Antonys statement

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LoC killings: Will BJP make PM

pay for Antony statement?

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did not give clean chit to Pak army

Cong defends Antony, says he

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Antonys statement on LoC killing

not changed at our behest: PMO

LoC killings: BJP has its way,

he victory over the Pakistan clean chit will go to the BJP.

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Full text: How AK Antony

slammed Pak hand in LoC killings

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Talking to Pakistan is not equal to a clean chit: Mani Shankar Aiyar

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The Pak response

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its army didnt kill 5 Indian soldiers

Full text: Pakistan Foreign Ministry says

akistan rejects Indian allegations of killing of its soldiers

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Pak media slams Indian rhetoric

and vitriol after LoC attack

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