After a year-long shelling and firing along LoC and IB, in which scores of innocent civilians lost their lives or limbs and sizeable damage was done to civilian property and crops, the two sides, India and Pakistan, held flag march talks and came to an agreement with the commitment not to escalate tension along the border, not to resort to unprovoked firing and shelling and not to disturb peace and tranquility along the dividing lines. We were somewhat relieved that such an understanding had been concluded at long last and hopefully the border dwellers would not have to face sudden and forced displacement. The agreement has been holding so far somehow and everybody expects that good sense will prevail on both sides. But as everybody knows, and so our security personnel also know, that Pakistan is not an ordinary and a straightforward State to handle. The complexity of control and the reality of its bipolarity of power centre are the main issues that become catalyst to sudden behavioral shifts in Pakistan’s military establishment. All the action and reaction in Pakistan rests in the hands of her military but the military has made the elected civilian Government answerable to all actions. This is a bizarre state of affairs. How this State is running its affairs is in reality something very surprising and something very amusing. Pakistani Rangers are handling her border with India. So-called non-state actors in Pakistan have been busy digging a ten foot deep and 30 meter long underground tunnel in RS Pura Jammu along the international border. How come that the Rangers did not notice any movement on the sensitive and crucial border on their side? How come that they did not obstruct and throw out the intruders because as Pakistan recently claimed, her army was mounting vigil along the border to prevent provocative acts that could invite retaliation from India. Why has Pakistan thrown to winds this agreement and the way it was holding? It shows that either the understanding arrived at about maintaining peace on the border was formed without the consent of the Army or that the Army, remaining in the background, wants to let down the civilian Government. In other words, Pakistan is trying to blow hot and cold at the same time. It would want peace and it would want upsetting of peace. This cannot happen.
New Delhi has done the right thing of asking Pakistan to make a joint survey of the tunnel and understand how Pakistan is responsible for disrupting peace on the International Border. We should not focus on whether the civilian Government in Islamabad is in control of situation in Pakistan or not. That will not help. We need to hold Islamabad responsible for all that leads to breaking the commitment of maintaining peace. Islamabad elected Government should not expect India to bail it out from the precarious position into which Pakistan army has thrust it. It is a freak of chance that the BSF could discover the tunnel in making and thus save the city of Jammu from impending disaster.
We appreciate the alertness of BSF who suspected foul when Pakistan objected to its clearing effort. We are proud of our security forces and we are confident they will not allow our adversary any chance of catching us napping. This is not the last effort of Pakistan; many more efforts will be made and we shall scuttle each effort to their dismay and wear them out. Kashmir will remain a dream for Pakistan. India should also tell the international community how Pakistan is trying to scuttle peace efforts and expose her perfidy to them to the hilt. The world community needs to be told that Pakistan is not indulging in such perfidies only to help infiltrators and terrorists sneak into Indian Territory but she also has the plans of giving a boost to drug peddling through undisclosed routes. Digging of the tunnel also proves that India has blocked all possible routs of smuggling or infiltration and is maintaining vigil on the border.
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