Pakistan

Ceasefire violations attempt to distract Pakistan’s fight against terror: army chief

General Raheel says army will provide all necessary assistance to civilians affected by Indian firing along LoC

Web Desk September 24, 2015

Army Chief General visiting forward locations at LoC on Thursday. PHOTO: ISPR

Army chief General Raheel Sharif said on Thursday continuous ceasefire violations at Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary by Indian forces are an unsuccessful attempt to distract Pakistan from its fight against terrorism.

The army chief during a visit to the forward locations on LoC on Thursday said Pakistan "Pakistan Army is a battle hardened army which has successfully handled two different kinds of war and is capable of defending every inch of the motherland," the army chief said during a visit to the forward locations on LoC, according to Inter Services Public Relations.

Indian continuous violations on LOC,Working Bdry is an unsuccessful attempt to distract Pak from fight vs terror-2 pic.twitter.com/0X3RitJdho
— Gen(R) Asim Saleem Bajwa (@AsimBajwaISPR) September 24, 2015

While expressing solidarity with civilians affected by the cross border firing and shelling, the army chief paid rich tributes to their resilience and sacrifices while braving Indian aggression.

“The army will provide all necessary assistance to civilians affected by unprovoked Indian firing along LoC,” the army chief was quoted as saying.

Pak Army battle hardened,successfully handled 2 different kinds of war&capable f defending every inch of motherland-3 pic.twitter.com/Sn46TN9vIA
— Gen(R) Asim Saleem Bajwa (@AsimBajwaISPR) September 24, 2015

During his visit to the forward positions on the LoC, General Raheel met soldiers and officers and extended Eid greetings in advance.

Read: Ceasefire violations: Indian envoy summoned to lodge protest

General Raheel appreciated the morale, professionalism and valiance of soldiers while defending the motherland and giving a befitting response to Indian unprovoked firing.

Ceasefire violations are taking place even after the directors general of the Pakistan Rangers and the Indian Border Security Force agreed to restore the ceasefire along the working boundary.

COMMENTS (11)

Zahid | 9 years ago | Reply I salute you General Raheel Sharif I m your can and every Pakistani respect you Pakistan Army Zindabad

Haider Rehman | 9 years ago | Reply How can India be happy at our progress against terrorism?

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Shaukat ali | 9 years ago | Reply @ s r h hashmi Who are you? And why do you write long stories that nobody reads and they are painfully boring! Just know nobody is going beyond the first couple of sentences.....

Azfar Bilal | 9 years ago | Reply @LAST WORD and has Pakistan abandoned it???? How much disproportionate response do you think would make Pakistan stop?

Pakistani awam | 9 years ago | Reply Great general you are the worthiest man and nation united for the awesome cause army is completing May Allah give fatah victory to you always Amin

Last Word | 9 years ago | Reply @S.R.H. Hashmi: Appreciate your views which are close to reality. The fact of the matter is that low intensity or proxy warfare has been waged by Pakistan against India for more than three decades. India's patience finally ran out and Modi govt issued un-ambiguous instructions to Indian security forces to give a disproportionate response to any provocation from across the border. This massive response is justified as Pakistan refuses to abandon its misplaced policy despite making several commitments and remains in mode of complete denial. I am afraid that the new Indian policy will continue till such time the latter decides to wind up its terror machinery.

Sarwar | 9 years ago | Reply General you are right. But is it not that India is looking for fissure in our defense through the LOC to take advantage to cross over and strike at us to "teach us a lesson" through "punitive diplomacy?" I am sure you are watching that and are prepared to preempt to prevent?

Dastagir Fikri | 9 years ago | Reply @S.R.H. Hashmi: The more you talk, the less you communicate.

Braheel Sharif | 9 years ago | Reply Thanku general.............

S.R.H. Hashmi | 9 years ago | Reply One big problem with leaders in Pakistan – even at highest level and in all branches – is that instead of appointing competent persons on senior positions, they become personally involved in small matters very much below their level. And an example of that is the performance of Nawaz Sharif who, during his last stint, used to be available on direct telephone line at certain times to hear complaints from public personally. One obvious result of such an approach is that those doing such things are left with little time to attend to jobs of their level. Another view could be that perhaps not having the ability to perform jobs which their position demands, they seek job satisfaction in attending to small matters which is all that they have the capacity of, and try to gain some cheap popularity. And the other thing is that they feel uncomfortable having competent people around for the simple reason that competent people would not allow undue interference in their work whereas these top leaders want to meddle in just about every thing. And, there is yet another reason for such an approach, which is to facilitate corruption by top leadership which flourishes in the presence of weak and corrupt officials and weakened institutions. Now, coming to ceasefire violations by India, if Major-General level talks in Delhi and Brigadier level talks in Poonch could not solve the problem, one has got to accept that the problem is not simply of some Indian soldiers going berserk or even of Indian attempts to distract Pakistan from its fight against terror, for the simple reason that it has not actually distracted us from the fight. Obviously, in order to succeed in distracting Pakistan military from its fight against terror, the incident has to be substantial in magnitude, instead of the occasional firing across the line of control and working boundary. It looks more like the expression of frustration by India over our conduct on certain matters. And perhaps a clue lies in a comment by obviously an Indian national on a news report about ceasefire violations wherein he said words to the effect “You send terrorists across the border and we will fire across the line of control and working boundary.” Now, his comment may not be entirely factual but it gives an idea of the Indian line of thinking on the issue. And if we review our conduct over years and decades in relation to Kashmir issue, the Indian thinking may not be entirely unjust. And while our leaders accept Kashmir to be the core issue between India and Pakistan, our approach towards solving it does not seem to be realistic, does not take present realities into account, and ignores the developments that have taken place on the issue in the meantime, like signing in 1972 of Simla Agreement by the then president Z.A. Bhutto of Pakistan, and Indian prime minister Indra Gandhi whereby Pakistan agreed to downgrade Kashmir issue to a bilateral level as a price for securing the release 93,000 soldier held prisoner by India. Responsible governments honour the agreements signed by earlier governments but in our case, ignoring this reality, our leaders of all shades start talking about UN resolution which is now practically obsolete, having been superseded by subsequent event, Simla Agreement. Also, at this stage, among the international community, no one is interested in the UN resolution and by refusing to help in connection with Yemen, Pakistan has lost the support even of our traditional backers, the Middle Eastern rulers. It is also a fact that we can not snatch Kashmir from India by force – like the 1965 war proved – and even if we make a dash and occupy some Indian territory, we can not retain its possession – like Kargil incident proved. And there is no likelihood of India offering occupied Kashmir to us on a plate, or giving full autonomy to Kashmiris. Pervez Musharraf’s government realized this and his foreign minister Khaurshid Mahmud Kasuri had made significant progress on this issue, but the present civilian and military leaders seem to ignore that as well. And the fact that India has a person like Narendra Modi as Prime Minister does not help matters either. In today’s BBC programme, Shafi Naqi interviewed a former RAW chief who talked of madness persisting on both sides of the border, which is a fair portrayal of the actual state of affairs. Instead of treating piecemeal Indian unprovoked firing across the line of control and working boundary, and exposing internationally the Indian intervention in Balochistan and Karachi – which efforts are unlikely to produce any positive results and will only increase bitterness– our leaders, both civilian and military should muster courage and deal with Kashmir issue in a realistic manner, preferably starting at a point where Khurshid Kasuri left. An honest demonstration of our will to solve our problems with India in a positive manner, seeking cooperation rather than confrontation, will definitely help matters. And that would definitely be a better approach, as compared to the present practice of trying to answer Indian madness with even greater madness, thus worsening the already tense relations and possibly leading to a stage where things could perhaps spiral out of control. Karachi

Raz | 9 years ago | Reply I have simply so much respect for this man and PK Army and Rangers. I could salute this man. Respect sir - I am a fan !

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