EDITORIAL: Trouble On The LoC

The need of the hour is a multilevel engagement between India and Pakistan

The gravity of the two incidents that took place along the Line of Control earlier this week must neither be seen as a localised affair of trivial significance nor blown out of proportion as a prelude to a major escalation of tensions between the two countries. True to form, both sides have given contradictory versions of what happened on January 6 – when a Pakistani soldier was killed during an alleged Indian raid on a Pakistani army post in the Uri sector – and on January 8 – when two Indian soldiers were killed and two others injured as Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire at an Indian army post located near Mendhar on the Indian side of the LoC. Such incidents do occur every now and then but both sides take care not to allow matters to spin out of control. 
    
That would have been the case this time too except that the incident at Mendhar had a macabre twist to it: the body of one of the Indian soldiers killed had been decapitated. The Pakistanis have of course promptly denied that this was their handiwork. But their troops and the terrorists some elements of the Pakistani establishment support have committed similar gruesome acts in the past. Provocations of this nature naturally inflame Indian public opinion. The defence ministry has, quite appropriately, condemned the latest violation of the ceasefire line. But the need of the hour is clearly to go beyond the blame game to explore ways and means to avoid such incidents in the future. 
    
In this regard, it is imperative for both to engage with one another at various levels: political and diplomatic, military and intelligence. At present, a hotline exists between the DGMOs of the two countries. But that is clearly not enough. A wider dialogue can, at the very least, check avoidable misunderstandings. It could of course achieve much more. New Delhi would surely want to know, for example, if the much-advertised shift in the Pakistani army’s strategic thinking – one that focusses on internal threats to that country’s security and not on India – is for real. A litmus test would be the swift conviction of alleged plotters of the terror attacks in Mumbai. 
    
Meanwhile, exchange visits by scholars and artistes, businessmen and pilgrims can help create, as the Aman Ki Asha experience attests, an atmosphere that is conducive to the resolution of some of the less intractable issues bedevilling India-Pakistan ties and, in the bargain, expand the peace constituency in both countries.