Mutilation avenged, or call it whatever!

Ajay Banerjee in New Delhi

Senior Army officers describe the present border situation as “the most tense” period since the 2003 ceasefire agreement. The ongoing firing by both sides along the 749-km Line of Control (LoC), and also the 198-km long International boundary (IB) in J&K, is the “most intense.”

Since September 29 ‘surgical strikes’ on terror camps in POK, the ‘sporadic, routine’ firing has given way to both sides using a variety of medium arms. These include mortars (both 81mm and 120mm), light & medium machine guns and sniper weapons such as Dragnov rifles. India has already announced that four Pakistani Army posts were destroyed on Oct 29, a day ahead of Diwali, in retaliation against the mutilation of a soldier by terrorists aided by the Pakistan Army.

The number of ceasefire violations is no more a benchmark for the seriousness of the situation. “Even one bullet fired is a violation and a mortar that travels up to 10km is also counted the same. The intensity and intent matter. And it’s different this time,” said a defence source.

Military-held posts of either country are bang on the LoC on both sides, at some places, less than 20 metres away, in the mountainous region. A forward post can typically have 10 soldiers, and if it comes under fire, the rest of the battalion can only direct fire at other posts of Pakistan, which increases the firing intensity. “These are abnormal times,” says a serving officer. 

The increasing number of cross-LoC fire-assaults is being attributed to modern surveillance equipment such as night vision and thermal imagers that make reaching an enemy post physically impossible. That was not the case a decade ago. “This makes coordinated firing as the most viable military response across the LoC or even the IB.” The situation could call for further action if bigger artillery guns (155mm) are used, say defence sources.