Homeward bound

Fate of two teenagers from Azad Jammu and Kashmir who crossed LoC last year and had been detained has taken an upturn

The fate of two teenagers from Azad Jammu and Kashmir who crossed the Line of Control last year and had been detained has taken an upturn. It had been alleged in the Indian press that the two boys had somehow been involved, possibly as guides, in the Uri attack that saw 19 Indian soldiers killed and as many as 30 injured. All four of the attackers were killed in the course of the assault. It now transpires that the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a report in February saying that after scrutiny of the mobile phones and the GPS devices associated with them there was no evidence that the boys had been involved in terrorism; and that their story that they had crossed the LoC after a dispute with their parents over their studies, held water. Whatever it was that led to the boys crossing the line it most certainly was not as part of a terrorist endeavour, and it is much to be hoped that they are returned to Pakistan at the earliest opportunity. It is reported that they have been handed to the Indian Army’s 16 corps on March 8 and we expect their early repatriation.

The resolution of the case is a welcome release of tension. India and Pakistan came close to limited warfare over the so-called ‘surgical strike’ late last year. This was another situation in which the Indian media talked up, on the flimsiest of evidence, a set of events which to this day are unclear in terms of whether or not they actually occurred. There are clear risks attached to such behaviours, and with tensions already running high India is now deploying American-made drones for the first time along the Line of Control. America has refused to supply similar equipment to Pakistan which is pushing towards an upset in the strategic balance, as well as doing nothing to improve relations between Islamabad and Washington. Against this backdrop the fate of two boys may seem trivial. Not so. How incidents such as they made the mistake of getting involved in are resolved determines, sometimes, who gives the order to fire. Minor or irrelevant? Not at all.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2017.

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