BSF’s ‘Operation Arjun’ making an impact

The Border Security Force’s targeting of farms and residences of retired officers of the Pakistan Army, ISI and Pakistan Rangers near the Indian border under an operation codenamed 'Operation Arjun', is a calculated move to deter Pakistan's tactic of firing on civilians, shelling villages along the border, and use of snipers to kill jawans to lower the morale of Indian security forces. Evidently, the Pakistani officers had been allotted land near the Indian border so that they could guide infiltration and provide logistical help in anti-India operations. The Narendra Modi government surmised that the rogue nation that Pakistan is, the only way to deter its men was to take a counter-offensive when overtures for peace were not working. While it is too early to judge the efficacy of ‘Operation Arjun,’ that Pakistan Rangers' Punjab DG Maj Gen Azgar Naveed Hayat Khan called BSF director KK Sharma on September 22 and again on September 25, and urged him to stop the firing is an index that the new strong-arm tactic is yielding results. While seven Pakistani Rangers have been killed in the operation so far, a number of border outposts and structures of Pakistan Army and Rangers were destroyed using long-range 81 mm weapons. One can only hope that India’s warning to stop infiltration and to the use of snipers to kill Indian jawans along the Line of Control "with active support of Pakistan forward posts" would be deterred to some extent. As India’s Director-General of Military Operations Lt Gen A.K. Bhatt has pointed out to the Pakistanis, all ceasefire violations in the Jammu sector were initiated by Pakistan Rangers and the BSF troops only responded appropriately to them. The message is loud and clear that India will not take things lying down and that it reserves the right to retaliate appropriately to any loss of life of Indian troops. In recent days, there have been two BAT (border action team) attacks conducted by Pakistan army regulars in conjunction with terrorists and both were effectively repulsed. It was BAT men who had killed and decapitated two Indian jawans in May in a barbaric action. It has been made clear to the Pakistanis that such action would lead to retaliatory action in future. With the separatists in Kashmir on the run due to attacks on their conduits for terror funding, the toughening Indian position on terrorist infiltration could go hand in hand in deterring terror.