Clearly, those behind the ambush are hoping to throw a spoke into India’s planning for the G20 meeting on tourism scheduled to be held in the Kashmir Valley next month.
New Delhi needs to keep up the heat on Islamabad while firewalling diplomatic events from falling hostage to purveyors of terrorism
By: Editorial
Updated: April 22, 2023 07:15 IST
The attack on an Army truck in Poonch in Jammu that killed five soldiers highlights the continuing vulnerability of this border area in spite of tiers of security — the army at the Line of Control, the Rashtriya Rifles in areas proximate to the border and the police in the hinterland. The guns have been silent at the Line of Control for two years, in observance of a 20-year-old ceasefire to which both the Indian and Pakistani armies recommitted themselves in February 2021. But going by infiltration attempts that the Army claims to have foiled, this cross border activity that used to be a regular side story during ceasefire violations continues to take place even now.
In January, police held cross-border terrorists responsible for the atrocity perpetrated against civilians in Dangri village in the Rajouri district, a border district neighbouring Poonch. Six people were killed. Despite an extensive search of the area, the assailants were not caught. Thursday’s attack took place near the site of a 2021 ambush in which nine soldiers were killed. An intense search operation for over a month by security forces was not successful in locating the militants. In the 1990s phase of militancy, Poonch and Rajouri were seen as easy gateways for cross-border infiltrators. But for a good part of the last 20 years, the hostility of the local communities towards militants had ensured they did not linger there too long. The increasing number of incidents in the two borders have shown the ease with which these elements are able to remain untraced, even as they mingle in local communities for food and shelter. This change should worry those in charge of the UT’s security. Equally worrying are the drone deliveries of weapons in the border areas, as pointed out by India at the UN Security Council just last week.
Clearly, those behind the ambush are hoping to throw a spoke into India’s planning for the G20 meeting on tourism scheduled to be held in the Kashmir Valley next month. But such cowardly actions can only strengthen Delhi’s resolve to go ahead with its plans for the meeting. That the ambush took place hours after the announcement by Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto that he would attend the Goa meeting of the Foreign Ministers Council of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation may be a coincidence, but it is not the first time that a positive development in India-Pakistan relations is followed immediately by a terrorist attack. This will be the first visit by a high-ranking functionary from Pakistan since 2016, when Sartaj Aziz attended the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar. Multilateral fora have on occasion provided space on the sidelines for India-Pakistan bilateral diplomacy, with mixed results. But spoilers may be already out and about to pre-empt outcomes. The government should be aware of this, and must firewall these important
diplomatic events from falling hostage to enemies of peace in South Asia.
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