Pak ceasefire violations aimed at expressing solidarity with terrorists,says brigadier

NAGROTA - A senior Indian Army officier on Thursday said that the repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan are aimed at expressing solidarity with terrorists and to facilitate the infiltration of militants across the Line of Control (LoC).

Commenting on the recent incidents in the Poonch sector, Brigadier S K Dua, Brigadier of the General Staff, XVI Corps of Indian Army, cited the latest ceasefire violation primarily to push infiltrators on Tuesday in Mendhar and Krishna Ghati range of Poonch sector on Wednesday, as examples of Islamabad’s strategy.

“It is been our experience that such ceasefire violations are initiated by Pak essentially to facilitate infiltration. Now there is a dual purpose to this, one by firing across the LC(Line of Control), they are physically facilitating infiltration from that area to keep our head down and infiltrators or terrorists get across, or it could be distraction that they, you know that they fire across the LC from at a certain point, then infiltrate from elsewhere. And the second purpose is also express solidarity with terrorist Tanzeems(Organizations). They do send a message to the tanzeems that they are with you, they are here to support you,” said Brigadier Dua.

He recalled that the Pakistani troops stopped firing when a protest was lodged with them through the hotline last Sunday. He that on Wednesday, they did not even pick up the hot line.

“Last time when we lodged a protest, you may recall that they actually picked up the hot line and when we lodged the protest and after sometime the firing had stopped. Yesterday they did not pick-up the hotline; they did not attend the hot-line. So we were also then constrained to respond appropriately as far as over action on the line of Control is concerned. However today hotline message has been received by Pakistan, but we are still waiting for their response,” added Brigadier Dua.

Indian intelligence officials say that infiltration attempts across the military ceasefire line by Pakistan-based militant groups tend to rise during this season as they are desperate cross over to this side after snowfall makes the high Himalayan mountain passes inaccessible.

India says Pakistan incites trouble in its half of Kashmir.

Pakistan says it only lends moral support to what it says is the local people’s armed independence struggle, a conflict which broke out in 1989 and has killed more than 47,000 people. By Tahir Nadeem Khan/Dhriti(ANI)