Ceasefire violations: India’s air chief warns Pakistan over LoC unrest

Air Marshal Browne says India may have to ‘look at other options’ if attacks continue.

NEW DELHI:

The head of the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal N A K Browne, has warned that if there were any more ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control, New Delhi may have to “look at some other options.”

The warning was issued following a meeting with the Indian defence minister and chiefs of the Indian Army and Navy.

Air Marshal Browne, who is currently the head of the Chiefs of Defence Staff Committee, termed the violations along the heavily militarised LoC and the 2003 ceasefire agreement by Pakistan as “totally unacceptable.”

“We are watching the situation carefully, if the violations continue, perhaps we may have to think of some other options for compliance,” he said, but declined to elaborate on the options. “Options are options … If violations continue we might have to look at the whole issue again,” Air Marshal Browne reiterated.

On the other hand, Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said in an interview to NDTV news channel that the government was not “going to be pressurised by wild calls for revenge and reaction.”

“We will do what is in the best interest of the country and peace, keeping in mind that there is a lot at stake.” He added that heightened border tensions demanded very responsible, sensible and moderate behavior.

Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Manish Tewari said the killing and mutilation of the two Indian soldiers on January 8 was in violation of the “rules of engagement.”



“The government is doing everything at the strategic level to express its anger. We have said clearly that the incident is inhuman. The incident is in complete violation of the Geneva convention and rules of engagement,” Tewari said at a press conference.

There was a lull in the escalating tensions on Saturday as no firing occurred along the LoC, a spokesperson for the Indian Army said. “There was no ceasefire violation along the Indo-Pak border this morning,” Colonel R K Palta said.

However, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s former president, Rajnath Singh said the government should recall its High Commissioner to Pakistan and scale down the level of diplomatic ties. He added that the recent incident indicated Pakistan was not keen to improve relations.

Congress leader Ambika Soni said the killing of the two soldiers was a hindrance to confidence building measures between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

In the Poonch district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, citizens appealed to both the governments to restore peace and respect the 2003 ceasefire agreement. In a written appeal, prominent residents of the town said: “For the people of Poonch region, as others living close to the LoC, the ceasefire [agreement of November 2003] brought peace, security and created an atmosphere for development in the border areas.”

Commentators and defence analysts said that India needed to exercise restraint, but could not be expected to do so indefinitely.

In a signed column, Col (Retd) Jaibans Singh agreed both the rivals needed to exercise restraint, “but we also need to lay down a threshold which says - this far and no more. If the whole matter culminates with some meetings and a few well guarded words, mostly spoken by our ministry of external affairs, then no message would have been sent to the Pakistani Army and such intransigence will keep happening.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2013.