- A tit for every tat can be disastrous
Despite the 29 May 2018 agreement between Pakistan and India to fully implement the 2003 ceasefire and control cross-border firing, this year has seen an unprecedented surge in deadly attacks of the sort leading to many more civilian casualties, mass displacements and destruction of property. What has helped the escalation is a rise in hostility between the two countries marked by several incidents beginning with Pulwama suicide attack and followed by the Balakot strike, the downing of two Indian jets and the capture of an Indian pilot and to top them all New Delhi revoking the special status of IOK.
Sunday was one of the deadliest days in the long series of the cross LoC firing and artillery shelling leading to the killing of several civilians and soldiers on both sides. While Indian army chief claimed that his troops used larger-round artillery fire to hit terrorist camps across the border, the pictures show dead bodies of civilian victims placed in the open surrounded by unarmed mourners.
While armies on both sides are expected to provide security to the civilian population, most of the victims in LoC violations are common people working in the fields, tending their flocks and in the case of children playing in the open or going to school. After every tragic killing both sides promise to avenge the deaths by retaliatory attacks that again kill more innocent men, women and children.
An autocratic PM Modi is adamantly pursuing his agenda of persecution in Kashmir ignoring demands from all over the world to lift restrictions on the citizens’ movement, restore mobile phones and internet services and release the detained political activists and leaders. This strengthens the perception that the violations of the LoC by India are aimed at diverting the world’s attention from the burning issue of the atrocities in IOK. It is time PM Modi sits down with Pakistan and the Kashmiri separatists to settle the issue.
PM Imran Khan needs to take the matter to the Parliament to evolve a consensus on talks with India on Kashmir. This would further convince the world of the need to put pressure on India for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue.
