National Security Advisor meets Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley to brief them on LoC tension

New Delhi: National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon is meeting opposition leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj currently to brief them on the situation at the Line of Control (LoC). The meeting is taking place at Ms Swaraj's residence and began a little after 10 this morning.

Yesterday, after the BJP sharply criticised the government's policy on Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called the two senior leaders and discussed the issue. Mr Jaitley has appealed to Dr Singh to immediately review New Delhi's level of engagement with Islamabad. During their conversation, the PM has assured the two leaders that the Opposition would be kept in loop over the situation, reported Press Trust of India. Dr Singh is also said to have assured them that nothing is being done which could not be communicated to the Leaders of Opposition in Parliament. The PM reportedly also appealed to them that the issue should not be politicised.

The tension along the LoC began on January 6 when the Pakistani army accused India of killing one of its soldiers and wounding another in a cross-border attack. India said its troops had opened fire following a Pakistani mortar attack, but denied they crossed the border. Two days later Pakistani troops violated ceasefire and mutilated the bodies of two jawans - Lance Naiks Hemraj Singh and Sudhakar Singh - killed in Pakistani firing; Hemraj's body was decapitated and the head is missing.

Ms Swaraj said yesterday that if India cannot recover the head of Lance Naik Hemraj Singh, it should at least bring back 10 Pakistani heads. "The incident that has happened, we should take revenge. Today, the country is demanding that we should not be proved a weak government... If we don't get this (Lance Naik Hemraj Singh's) head, we should get 10 of theirs (Pakistan army's)," she said.

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"The question is, will we sit without any reaction and engage in a dialogue? This should not happen. At least the government should react in some way. That is why we have said that government should take some tough measures," Ms Swaraj added.

The senior BJP leader, along with party president Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh, was visiting Hemraj's family in Shernagar, Uttar Pradesh. The martyr's wife and mother were on an indefinite fast demanding that his head be found and returned.

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India has lodged a strong protest against ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC and also expressed concern at the barbaric way Pakistani troops treated the bodies of Lance Naik Hemraj.

At a 35-minute flag-meeting of brigade commanders in Poonch in Kashmir yesterday, the Indian Army also warned Pakistan that such a "dastardly and cowardly act" was unacceptable and that it was a premeditated attempt to undermine the cease-fire agreement signed between the two countries in 2003. It said that a repetition of such acts would not be tolerated and that it if did, the Indian Army reserves the right to retaliate at a point and time of its choosing.

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Four soldiers have been killed in the last one week at the LoC. It marks a peak in hostility since 2003, when the ceasefire was agreed upon.

(With inputs from PTI)

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