by Nilesh Kunwar

On Thursday, the Indian and Pakistan army held a brigade commander level flag meeting in the Poonch sector of J&K to discuss measures to and maintain peace along the Line of Control (LoC). Coming after a spate of ceasefire violations by the Pakistan army that included the planting an improvised explosive device (IED) along India’s border fence by its Border Action Team (BAT) in the Akhnoor sector in February 11 leading to two fatalities on the Indian side, one had assumed that good sense would prevail and Rawalpindi would cease its provocative acts of violence along the LoC.

On Saturday night, the Pakistan army once again violated the ceasefire in an unsuccessful attempt to facilitate infiltration of terrorists in the Akhnoor sector and in the process of thwarting the same, a Junior Commissioned Officer of the Indian army made the supreme sacrifice. Coming just two days after the brigadier level flag meeting , this incident proves beyond any doubts that despite paying dearly for its muscle-flexing in terms of lives and limbs of its rank and file due to the Indian army’s strong retaliatory actions , Rawalpindi remains beyond redemption.

The Indian army’s response to Pakistan army’s transgressions along the LoC has been both intense and effective. For example, in retaliation to a ceasefire violation By Pakistan army on April 1, the Indian army targeted Pakistani positions and in this retaliatory action, four/five Pakistan army personnel were killed and an unspecified number injured. Though Rawalpindi did not acknowledge these casualties, open-source intelligence (OSINT) aficionados monitoring Pakistani social media sites have shared posts put up by the near and dear ones of the deceased that confirms these figures.

Continued ceasefire violations by the Pakistan army and its brazen attempts to push-in terrorists across the LoC despite the heavy losses it is suffering makes it imperative for New Delhi to seriously reconsider its response strategy and this issue needs to be understood from Rawalpindi’s point of view. Though it may sound bizarre, the fact of the matter is that tense Indo-Pak relations is exactly what Rawalpindi wants as such a situation adds credence to its contrived domestic narrative of a ‘Hindu’ India being an existential threat to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

It’s no secret that the Pakistan army’s war performance against its Eastern neighbour has been abysmal. Yet, it has successfully projected itself as the ultimate bulwark against Indian hegemony, and grabbed a host of extra-constitutional powers that has rightly earned it the dishonourable moniker of being “an army with a country.” And the fact that instead of being respectfully referred to as ‘defenders of the nation’, the Pakistan army is cynically addressed as the “establishment” by all and sundry in Pakistan underscores this matter-of-fact observation.

The harsh reality is that in order to protect its power-base and divert public attention from its own failings, the Pakistan army top brass has no other option but to continue keeping the Indian ‘invasion’ bogey alive and kicking, even at the cost of unnecessarily sacrificing its soldiers. It may be argued that if the Pakistan army is indeed suffering inordinately heavy losses due to Indian army’s retaliatory actions, then Rawalpindi would have to face public ire and suffer loss of face which it couldn’t afford and such this claim is farfetched. This argument does have some merit.

However, it may be pertinent to mention that way back in 2017, while speaking on the floor of the Senate, Pakistan’s then Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali disclosed the fact that Rawalpindi was unwilling to share details of Pakistan army soldiers killed along the LoC due to Indian army actions. Citing “security reasons” for this non-disclosure, he gave the absurd reasoning that “We do not want our enemy to know how many soldiers laid down their lives.” Isn’t reluctance in announcing details of those who lay down their lives in line of duty along the LoC an effort on Rawalpindi’s part to conceal embarrassing information from the public?

Two years later, the then Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa publicly accepted Rawalpindi’s involvement in fomenting violence in J&K by declaring that “The Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end (and) we are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfill our obligations in this regard.” His successor Gen Syed Asim Munir has gone a step further by saying, "Pakistan has already fought three wars for Kashmir, and if 10 more wars are required, Pakistan will fight them."

With such unabashed display of belligerence by Pakistan army chiefs, it’s abundantly clear that the ongoing proxy war in J&K being orchestrated by Rawalpindi is unlikely to end or even see any decline in the foreseeable future at least, and this is what New Delhi should be prepared for! So, while every ceasefire violation by the Pakistan army must be reciprocated with exemplary military retribution, necessary increments in the security apparatus to effectively thwart infiltration and neutralise those terrorists who do manage to sneak across must be seriously considered.

Whereas New Delhi is certainly seized with the problem of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, its response is unfortunately reactive and fraught with adhocism. After every major terrorist attack, one invariably comes across official statements about the induction of additional forces and though such disclosures are reassuring, they often come at the cost of either reducing troop deployment elsewhere or by disrupting the training and administration of units in peacetime locations.

The Indian army’s remarkable ability in taking to the field at extremely short notice and surmounting overwhelming odds was amply evident during the 1999 Kargil conflict, but over reliance on adhocism at national level does have several adverse effects. For example, a divisional size force of Rashtriya Rifles created to for anti-terrorist operations in Udhampur sector of J&K was moved to Eastern Ladakh after the 2020 Galwan clashes that created a humongous void in this region that the Pakistan army has successfully exploited to infiltrate terrorists and establish sleeper cells.

During a recent panel discussion, India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan bluntly stated that in counter terrorism operations “(the) biggest lesson is that there is no substitute for boots on ground. Technology can only be an enabler but it cannot replace people.” This extremely significant observation made by a seasoned ground soldier with vast experience of anti-terrorist operations both in J&K and India’s North East region is something that New Delhi just cannot afford to disregard.

Hence, given the Pakistan army’s incurable obsession of sponsoring terrorism as a means to undermine Indian army’s numerical and psychological superiority by bleed India through a thousand cuts, any effort to dissuade it from indulging in this self-debilitating enterprise by highlighting the rich dividends of peace is doomed to fail. Hence it would be prudent for New Delhi to take this bull by the horns and create a dedicated force that can decisively defeat Rawalpindi’s proxy war in J&K!

Nilesh Kunwar is a retired Indian Army Officer who has served in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. He is a keen ‘Kashmir-Watcher,’ and after retirement is pursuing his favourite hobby of writing for newspapers, journals and think-tanks. Views expressed above are the author's own