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Despite Pak pledge on peace India to upgrade security grid on LOC & IB 9/13/2015 8:09:30 PM Will there be some end to repeated ceasefire violations on the 187 km long International Border (IB) in the Jammu sector ?Well possibilities for peace seem to have multiplied following an agreement reached between the two sides during a two-day meeting between the DG Rangers,Maj.Gen. Umar Farooq,and the DG BSF,D.K.Pathak in New Delhi.It seems that the two sides were keen to ink peace proposal after three-month long rattling and rocking of the IB in which scores of civilians and security personnel on both sides were killed and about 50 others were injured.As far as the Indian side of the border scene was concerned several thousand civilians had to flee to safer places after their houses and huts were hit by Pak guns and mortar shells.The chances for peace have brightened after India and Pakistan agreed to a new firing protocol, which will be implemented for both night and day. It will involve firing warning shots upon spotting suspicious movements at the International Border (IB). Any retaliation, including mortar shelling, will only take place after the newly established communication channels have been "exhausted". What seems to have added to the importance of the DG level talks was the way the Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh interacted with the delegation of Pakistan Rangers, led by its Director General Major General Umar Farooq Burki, which had called on him. In fact the DG level talks were the first bilateral interaction between India and Pakistan after the recent NSA level and last year's foreign secretary level talks between the two sides were called off on one pretext or the other. The Home Minister conveyed to the delegation that India would not fire the first bullet across the border. Stressing forces or civilians should not be targeted on either side, he said India wanted "cordial relations with Pakistan" as the government followed the policy of peace with its neighbours. Responding, Burki said Pakistan also wanted to have cordial relations with India and would follow the decisions taken in the meeting. He said there could have been some incidents at the border where firing took place due to misunderstanding or by mistake. The way Maj Gen. Burki responded to Rajnath Singh's observations indicates that Islamabad is keen to maintain peace on the IB.What keeps the Indian side on the tenterhook is the experience New Delhi has from Islamabad. In the past there have been frequent flag meetings between the field commanders of the security forces but each commitment worked out during the meetings had been violated by Pakistan when its Army or the Rangers resorted to ceasefire violations for the purpose of carving out a passage for militants,waiting on the launch pads across the border,to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir.Those who are skeptical about the outcome of the DG level talks argue that even if there is peace on the IB there is no guarantee about the policy Pakistan Army will adopt.In this connection they cite the instance of a ceasefire violations on the LOC in Poonch,Rajouri and in north Kashmir during the time the DG Rangers was busy in his engagement with his counterpart in New Delhi.This way the agreement signed between the R angers and the BSF may not be applicable to the Army in Pakistan.And if Pakistan was keen to hammer out peace on the IB through DG level talks it did so because its forces and civilians had come under severe pressure from the heavy retaliation by the BSF on the IB. Whatever may have been the outcome of the DG level talks Islamabad,its troops and the ISI may not sit silent.Its forces may keep the cauldron boiling which it feels allows it a chance to focus international attention on the Kashmir issue.Hence it is mandatory for the BSF and the Army to upgrade the security grid and the border management to foil any mischief from Pakistani forces.   Share This News with Your Friends on Social Network     Comment on this Story

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