392% rise in LoC firing cases
The number of ceasefire violations (CFV) by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir rose by an astounding 392 per cent in six months after the surgical strike by India’s special forces in the intervening night of September 28-29.
From April 2016 to September-end, Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire treaty 50 times while in the next six months, from October 2016 to March 2017, the number rose to 196, a whopping rise of 392 per cent.
The figures have been analysed from a written response to a query in the Rajya Sabha by minister of state for defence Dr Subhash Bhamre on the number of CFVs in the last 12 months.
During 2016 and 2015, there were 228 and 152 ceasefire violations, respectively, by Pakistan.
Ceasefire violations along LoC in J&K rose in six months after the surgical strike in the intervening night of September 28-29
On November 25, 2003, the director generals of military operations of India and Pakistan inked a “no-firing” or ceasefire agreement along Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir. Besides the 190km-long International Border (IB) in Jammu, the pact is applicable along the over 500 km long LoC and the Actual Ground Position Line in J&K.
Mr Bhamre also said that the Army retaliated appropriately to the ceasefire violations. “In addition, all violations of ceasefire are taken up with Pakistan authorities at the appropriate level through the established mechanism of hotlines, flag meetings as well as weekly talks between the directorate generals of military operations of the two countries,” the minister wrote.
On the intervening night of September 28-29, acting on specific and very definite inputs from across the border that there were several terrorist teams positioned at the launch pads, ready to carry out strike in J&K and other parts of country with an aim of causing destruction and damage to the citizen, India’s elite special forces had carried out several coordinated and incisive strikes on the militant launch pads across the LoC inflicting huge damage.
The surgical strikes, besides being a response to a brazen attack on September 18 by Pakistani militants on an Army base in J&K’s Uri that killed 19 soldiers, also marked a tactical shift by carrying the fight to the enemy camps and also to ostensibly demonstrate a “hard state” posturing that would not tolerate terror-related anti-India activity.