Poonch:
The near 48-hour peace at the border was shattered this afternoon as the Pakistani army fired upon Indian Army positions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch and Arnia sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior Army officials told NDTV that the firing in Poonch lasted for a short duration and the Indian Army claimed to have responded "adequately". Firing was reported again around 8 pm in Arnia where five civilians were killed earlier this week in heavy shelling, spiking tension along the border.
Poonch is one of the most volatile areas near the LoC and comes under the Army's 93 Brigade, considered to be one of its most active and critical commands. It is the same area where two Indian soldiers were beheaded by the Pakistani Army in January last year. In October, a soldier was killed when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)
exploded. In all possibility, the device was planted by a Pakistani Border Action Team that generally comprises commandos and carries out surprise strikes along the border. The Indian Army, however, denies that IEDs were planted during a Pakistani BAT action. Surprisingly, the 93 Brigade doesn't have a commander since August 2014. The last commander, an officer from the Gurkha regiment, put in his papers following allegations of "misconduct" by the very men he commanded. A court of inquiry ordered subsequently to the allegations is still on.
The tension in Poonch is just one of the issues that the Army is currently reviewing. One of the primary concerns is the state of the Ditch Cum Bandhs (DCB) - these are defences that run parallel to the western boundary. Sections of the DCBs - earth structures which are about 7-8 feet high - have taken a beating in the recent floods in the state.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of ceasefire violations this year, set against a backdrop of fractious politics in Pakistan where Kashmir is often the glue that holds diverse political concerns together. Indian security agencies, in their reports to the government, have repeatedly cited this as one of the causes behind the tension along the border.
"I feel Pakistan wants to internationalize the Kashmir issue and wants the focus to be back on Kashmir," Lieutenant General KH Singh, Commander of Nagrota-based 16 Corps that looks after the area south of the Pir Panjal range, told NDTV. In pursing this goal, "Pakistan is looking for soft targets" and was therefore "targeting civilian areas like Arnia in Jammu," he added.