Pahalgam: Junking 2021 decision, Pak, India exchange fire at LoC in J&K
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Failed and broke Pakistan, with China and Bangladesh supporting it, has not only suspended the Shimla Pact of 1971 after India’s largely diplomatic retaliatory moves post the Pahalgam terror attack, but also junked the informal 2021 decision to desist from firing along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
And its Defense Minister Khwaja Asif has even declared Pakistan’s support to terrorists, thus escalating the tension between the two countries.
The Friday gunfight came two days after a deadly attack on tourists, carried out by Islamabad-sponsored, funded, trained, and launched terrorists, who killed at least 27 tourists and wounded nearly 20 others.
Indian and Pakistani troops used small arms and exchanged fire in J&K, the media, quoting officials in New Delhi reported, as their bilateral relations continued to plummet.
Responding to the terror attack, New Delhi on Wednesday announced diplomatic moves, including downgrades and treaty suspensions, further escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
This is the first such exchange of fire since the COVID-19 pandemic, and breaks a 2021 pledge between the two neighbours to cease firing along the Line of Control (LoC) that separates the Indian and Pakistani controlled areas of J&K.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short his two-day official visit to Saudi Arabia, has wowed to respond in kind against Pakistan.
New Delhi has accused Pakistan of involvement in the attack, and on Wednesday announced punitive measures against the neighbor, including downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending a crucial water-sharing treaty, the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
On Thursday, the J&K police identified the three terrorists, two of them Pakistani and a local, of being involved in the attacks. All three were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the police said, a Pakistan-based militant group that India and the US have designated as a terrorist organization.
Pakistan has denied any links to Tuesday’s attacks and retaliated by expelling Indian diplomats from Islamabad, closing its airspace to Indian-owned and Indian-operated airlines, and suspending the limited trade between the nations.
Since 1947, the two neighbors have fought major wars over J&K. The last time the two sides came close to an all-out war was in 2019, when a suicide bomber killed 40 members of India’s security forces. Jaish-e-Mohammed (Soldiers of Mohammed), a Pakistan-based jihadi group, claimed responsibility at the time, prompting India to respond with its first air strikes on Pakistani soil since 1971.
Indian Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi is on a two-day visit to the Union Territory to review the situation.
Also on Friday, the Indian Army’s soldiers engaged in a gun battle with terrorists in North Kashmir, as security forces continued to hunt for perpetrators of this week’s attacks, and look for others.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Defense Minister Khwaja Muhammed Asif has admitted Islamabad’s support to terrorists who it claims are “freedom fighters.”
When a journalist from an Australian TV asked him whether Pakistan supports these terrorists, he admitted it, but hastened to add this “dirty work” Pakistan has been doing for three decades for the United States and the West, including Britain.
“If we had not joined the war against the Soviet Union and later the War on Terror after 9/11, Pakistan’s track record would have been unimpeachable.”
