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| Cease-fire breach: India lodges formal complaint with Pakistan | | | New Delhi | May 15
Indian commander staged an urgent flag meeting with his Pakistani counterpart to formally complain about the breach of ceasefire on Wednesday evening at around 6 pm at the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan commander however, denied any such violations of truce.
The ceasefire with Pakistan has been in force since 2003 and it was the first major violation of five-year old truce since then.
The director general of military operations (DGMO) Lt. Gen. A.S. Sekhon discussed the border situation on the hotline with his Pakistani counterpart Major General A S Pasha at 3 pm, said an Indian Army officer.
The seriousness of the situation can be understood as the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself dubbed the incident as worrisome.
“The issue is initially being taken up militarily at the level of Director General of Military Operations,” said Dr. Singh at the sidelines of defence investiture ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday evening, while talking to reporters.
He said the whole situation will be discussed at the level of External Affairs Ministry, when Pranab Mukherjee will visit Islamabad next week to discuss the affairs of mutual interests.
When asked about the interlinking of cross-border firing and the Jaipur's serial blasts, the Prime Minister said some anti-communal elements had been trying to infringe the peace and communal harmony of the country, but would not be successful.
To a query regarding Pakistan hand in Jaipur blasts, he said the investigative agencies are looking at all possible points involved in the incident and at this initial stage of the investigation it would be premature to say anything.
No major development has been noticed on the Kashmir issue since 2003, when the ceasefire along the border came into operation despite claiming vehemently from the both sides. There have also been noticed the instances when the cross border firing are reported since ceasefire.
The External Affairs Minister is scheduled to visit Islamabad to talk to his counterpart on various issues including the recent breach of ceasefire next week.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon confirmed terrorism includes the recent trans-border firing in the Samba sector in Jammu will be high on agenda when Pranab Mukherjee will visit Islamabad to hold talk with his counterpart later this month to review the four-year old peace process between the two countries.
Firing has been reported since last Friday when the Indian army tried to stop illegal infiltration of group of militants from the cross-border into the Indian occupied Kashmir.
The worst occurred on Tuesday evening when Pakistan forces suddenly resorted to unprovoked firing in Kupwara sector. Indian Army however did not retaliate and no any round of fire was shot by the Indian side. No one was hurt in the firing, said Indian army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel A K Mathur.
The Army official said no infiltration has been reported yet and it was ambiguous that the firing was to cover an infiltration attempt. So we are saying the incident as the violation of truce by Pakistani forces.
India and Pakistan concluded ceasefire in 2003. Since then no major violation of ceasefire has been reported. Tuesday's cross-border firing was the first violation of the 2003 India-Pakistan ceasefire on the LOC. Tuesday also marked the day of the 10th anniversary of the May 13, 1998, when India had conducted nuclear tests at Pokhran. |
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