Tinder-box Kashmir border

War of words turning into frequent LoC cross-border firing

German statesman Otto von Bismarck, who dominated German and European diplomacy famously predicted that ‘some damn foolish thing in the Balkans’ would ignite the next war, a prophesy that came true 17 years later with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia and triggering of the first World War. Although this might be a false analogy, the alarming events on the LoC and ominous and irresponsible statements emanating from the highest military quarters are ratcheting up tensions to such a pitch that the slightest spark, wrong move or provocation can prove catastrophic. It is amazing that the horrid consequences of an all-out escalation are being ignored in the neurotic war fever being fanned in Modi’s India. The UN recently voiced its concern over the powder-keg LOC and increasing civilian deaths when the Secretary General’s spokesman revealed that Antonio Gutters was ‘watching’ and monitoring’ the situation himself.

Recently acquired SCO membership should have induced a change in prevailing rigid attitudes, or the SCO itself moved to play a meaningful role in reducing tensions between the two nuclear armed nations. This has not happened and the arch-rivals remain locked in the usual tit-for-tat syndrome. Their official communiqués can easily be inter-changed without change of subject matter, where the charged words are ‘unprovoked firing on civilians’, ‘infiltration’, ‘retaliatory action’, ‘enemy guns silenced’, ‘posts razed’, and ‘innocent civilian casualties’. The 2003 LOC ceasefire agreement has become a joke as Indians violated it 400 times since January, reportedly leaving 13 dead and 68 injured.

In the latest Indian firing in Kotli sector two teenage civilians died and three were wounded, followed by the inevitable Pakistani riposte on Indian posts. Indian Deputy High Commissioner is now a regular visitor to the Foreign Office, summoned to protest the deliberate targeting of civilians. The shaken Indians are deliberately using these aggressive LOC tactics to distract the world’s attention from the terrible conditions in Held Kashmir and killing and torture of civilians by their army. The UN must play a proactive role now, despite Indian hurdles.