India said five of its soldiers died after their border post was attacked in the disputed region of Kashmir, six months after some of the most serious violence in a decade derailed peace talks with neighbor Pakistan.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on his official Twitter account that he had been briefed on the killings. The deaths call into question recent overtures by Pakistan’s newly elected government to resume meetings, he said.
A spokesman for Pakistan’s army said by phone that no incident had taken place and the nation’s troops hadn’t carried out unprovoked firing along the frontier.
Ram Niwas, head constable of Indian Border Security Force (BSF), who was wounded in a cross-border firing incident at the Ramgarh Sector in Samba district, near the India-Pakistan border some 45 km from Jammu, is brought to the government Medical College Hospital in Jammu on Aug. 5, 2013. Source: AFP/Getty Images
The latest violence in the Himalayan region may hinder efforts to repair ties between the South Asia neighbors shattered by the Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008. Pakistan’s Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif last month suggested dates for talks on access to water, and the Sir Creek maritime border, his first major peace initiative since winning elections in May.
India has been considering a proposal for discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sharif at the United Nations in New York at the end of September, an Indian government official, who asked not to be named because he’s not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said last week.
“India will lodge a strong protest against this and army commanders at the appropriate level may take retaliatory action,” said Dipankar Banerjee, a retired major general in the Indian army who served in Kashmir and now a defense analyst with the Forum for Strategic Initiative in New Delhi. “This tit-for-tat is par for the course, and both sides are at it.”
Border Violations
In January and February, India and Pakistan’s governments and their militaries traded accusations of deadly raids across the de facto frontier in Kashmir. Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said at the time the clashes meant an end to “business as usual” between the countries.
The parliament in New Delhi adjourned as opposition lawmakers in both chambers stood up from their seats to demand an explanation from the government over how the attack occurred.
The Press Trust of India, citing Indian defense officials it didn’t name, said Pakistani soldiers had crossed into Indian territory after midnight and ambushed the Sarla post along the so-called Line of Control that divides Kashmir.
India escalated “technical and inadvertent” border violations in recent days, according to an Aug. 3 statement on the Twitter page of Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa. A Pakistani soldier was killed and another injured by Indian firing July 27 in the Rawalakot sector of Kashmir, he said.
‘Wake Up’
Sitanshu Kar, India’s defense ministry spokesman, did not answer two calls to his mobile phone seeking comment.
Narendra Modi, who is expected to be the main opposition alliance’s prime ministerial candidate at the next election in less than a year, criticized the government for failing to secure India’s borders. Writing on his official Twitter account, he described the attack as a “dastardly ambush”.
“When will the center wake up?” Modi said, referring to the central government. “From China’s intrusions to Pakistan’s ambushes — UPA government has been absolutely lax in securing Indian borders.”
India had a military standoff with China high in the Himalayas in April. India alleged Chinese troops crossed into Indian-held territory in Ladakh in the north, triggering a three-week escalation in tensions that ended with an agreement negotiated by army commanders.
“This is not the way that we are going to have better relations” with Pakistan, junior home minister R.P.N. Singh said in televised comments outside parliament, declining to comment further until the defense or foreign minister has spoken.
The territory of Kashmir is the biggest hurdle to India and Pakistan improving ties. The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over the region that is divided between them and claimed in full by both.
The Reuters
