When Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sounded a warning bell during her J&K visit last week saying that “Pakistan will have to pay for its misadventures”.
“I wouldn”t certainly state a timeline (for action against Pakistan). But will say this, Pakistan will pay for this misadventure. I repeat, Pakistan will pay for it,” she added. The jitters in Pakistan resonated in a nervous reaction of the Pakistan government which said “any misadventure (by India) will be met with an equal response”.
Apparently, Pakistan memories of surgical strikes that India carried out in 2016 must have come alive.
The Defence Minister, who had visited the State in the wake of the militants attack on the Sunjuwan army base in Jammu, underlined that Pakistan is “expanding the arch of terror to areas south of Pir Panjal ranges and resorting to ceasefire violations to assist infiltration.”
She reaffirmed that the three terrorists of the Jaish-e Mohammad who attacked the Army camp, were controlled by handlers in Pakistan. The elite National Investigation Agency, which probes terror cases, would scrutinise the case further.
The militants” attack had left five soldiers and a civilian killed while about a dozen, including women and children, were injured.
In 2016, the Indian Army had carried out surgical strikes to destroy about half a dozen Pakistan militant camps less than two weeks after terrorists attacked an Army camp in Uri, killing 19 soldiers.
Lately, Pakistan has been building twin pressure of rampant ceasefire violations and infiltration of militants on an unprecedented scale, which, according to senior officials, has in the last two months taken the highest toll in terms of loss of lives in the last decade.
In last December amid the spurt in ceasefire violations by Pakistan, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat had visited forward posts along the LoC in Rajouri sector, where an Army Major and three jawans were killed by Pakistani troops on December 23. He reviewed the operational preparedness of the forces and the prevailing security situation in Jammu&Kashmir. Yet there has been no let-up in the situation. The very next day there was shelling from Pakistan in the Shahpur sector in Poonch area. Two days later Pakistan shelling and firing took place in Khari Karmara sector in Poonch area. An Army jawan was killed in Rumali Dara area in the same sector.
In January this year 19 people, including 10 security personnel and nine civilians, were killed and over 75 injured in Pakistani shelling along the LoC and the International Border in the Jammu region.
In one of the most-serious ceasefire violations in the RS Pura sector on January 19 eight persons including five civilians and three members of the armed forces were killed in the Pakistan Army shelling that also left 35 persons injured. In view of repeated such incidents the state government authorities evacuated more than 10,000 people from the border areas. Quick on the heels were the militant attack on the army camp in Sunjuwan, on an hospital that saw a terrorist flee the police custody, and a day later an attempt to attack the CRPF camp. — Organiser Bureau
