There were only three occasions in the past two months when the ceasefire was violated along the International Border by Pakistan. The incidents of cross-border firing have shown a sharp decline after the border guarding forces of the two countries decided to “pick up the phone before picking up the gun”, when the DG-level talks with Pakistan Rangers concluded in September. The ceasefire violations till August stood at 589.
After the DG level talks of Pakistan Rangers-BSF concluded in September, it was decided that the two forces will communicate and try to resolve any kind of confrontation along the border.
The data available with the BSF shows that in September, there were two occasions when there was firing from medium machine guns on the BSF posts. Once on September 12th and then from September 23-25 (counted as single incident).
In October, no such incident was reported while on November 9th, there was only one incident of cross-border firing. All the violations were reported in the Hiranagar-Samba sector of Jammu, which has also seen multiple infiltration attempts.
“When there was firing from across the border, there was retaliation from our side. DG BSF got a call from his counterpart Major General Umar Farooq Burki on the hotline number activated in September. It took an hour to de-escalate the tension. The phone call came in handy to avert tension and hostility at the border,” said a senior BSF officer.
Like the arrangement reached earlier, the ceasefire violations were recorded and the two sides exchanged the incident report with the help of e-mails and facsimile messages. “We followed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) decided after the DG-level talks and immediately sent a facsimile as well as an e-mail to record our displeasure,” said the official.
The communication lines were also set up to secure the well-being of the border population, who are the worst affected by ceasefire violations and cross-border firing.
The two border guarding forces had also decided to initiate new Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) through regular exchange of sporting and cultural troupes and initiation of coordinated patrolling in specific border areas.
Ceasefire violations by the neighbouring country along the border in Jammu and Kashmir has remained a major irritant in the bilateral ties between India and Pakistan.
Before the Pakistan Rangers delegation came to talks in September, the Pakistani troops had already violated the ceasefire 11 times in September.
