ISLAMABAD: One can hardly understand and feel the fear, miseries and pain of the people living close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and along the Working Boundary in Sialkot and other districts.
Their lives, properties and livestock are spread out completely exposed to the Indian forces, who are becoming increasingly hostile by the day to target the civilian population in stark violation of all the international laws.
These defenceless villagers are living there since generations but for the last many months these poor Pakistani peasants are laying down their lives, suffering damage to their properties and loosing livestock on daily basis without a break. They go to an uneasy sleep as an eerie silence prevails after the darkness settles down and they are awakened with a jolt to the sounds of rat-tat of heavy machine guns and explosions of mortar shells. And soon the loud screams of anguish will start from one house or the other that had become target of this Indian firing and shelling. People would rush to the unfortunately family or families who have become the victim of the Indian Army’s atrocities. The injured would be rushed to the hospitals and preparations will start for ‘nimaz-a-janaza’ and burial of those who had been martyred. Unfortunately, the Indian government is getting more and more frustrated and that frustration is reflecting in shape of almost every day ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and on the Working boundary with Kashmir in Sialkot. Once again there was a violation of ceasefire by the Indian Army on the Working Boundary in Sialkot. Once again innocent civilians, both men and women, fell prey to the bullets and mortar shells and many were left injured.
Once again the Deputy High Commissioner of India was summoned to FO and the concerned official handed over a ‘strong protest’ to him over the unprovoked violation of ceasefire resulting in civilian casualties. Once again the United Nations Military Observers’ Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) is intimated of these incidents. Sometimes the UNMOGIP team will visit the site and will send their report to the concerned offices. And the official record somewhere back in the UN offices is updated and the file is put back in the rack. The whole exercise has become such a routine that such a serious incident has been reduced to brief single column news appearing in the newspapers and a flash ticker that fades away from the TV screens within an hours’ time.m Hardly any print or electronic media takes pain to highlight the implications of these ceasefire violations by the Indian Army on the lives of the people who are living close the LoC and the Working Boundary. The anxiety and trauma they live through 24 hours a day every day of their lives.
When contacted, the Pak Army sources said that they are strictly abiding by the ceasefire agreement between the two countries. “We exercise maximum restraining in such situations. We do respond to these ceasefire violations from the Indian side with precision and effectiveness. Unfortunately, they are targeting our civilian population, something which Pakistan Army will never do,” the Army sources said. “The Indian government is becoming more and more frustrated and the Indian Army on the LoC and the Working boundary is becoming outrageously aggressive in violations of the ceasefire agreement between the two countries. Even the Indian Army chief failed to keep his cool and hurled threats absolutely unbecoming of his office and his stature. “As a responsible Army, we are strictly following the directions we receive from the government and the decision makers in Rawalpindi. We target only the enemy posts from where the fire is coming and we never target civilian targets,” the sources in the Pakistan Army said. A defense expert said that the Indians are methodically provoking Pakistan Army to react to these violations. “They (Pakistan Army) have to exercise extreme restraint amidst prevailing conditions. India is desperately trying Pakistan to react to these ceasefire violations.
In the past they had used such reactions from Pakistan side as an act of providing a cover to the ‘infiltrators’. Any strong response from Pakistan would be projected by the Indian government and the Indian media to level all sorts of accusations against Pakistan for helping the brave Kashmiris who have engaged Indian Army in their struggle for freedom. This brings Pakistan Army under even more pressure to exercise caution and restraint and not fall into the trap being laid by the Indians,” the defense expert said.
