In a ‘Media Clarification’ issued on Thursday, the Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Defence, Srinagar, says:
1. Please refer to the news article “Runway grandmother sparked savage skirmish on LoC” by Praveen Swami, published in The Hindu on January 10, 2013. Certain aspects mentioned in the article are factually incorrect.
2. First, as per the article, 70-year-old Reshma Bi had crossed the Line of Control on 26 September, 2011. Therefore, the recent cease fire violations cannot be linked to an incident 16 months old.
3. As mentioned in the article, no announcements were made by the Pakistan Army over a public address system at Uri demanding a halt to any construction work.
4. GOC 19 Inf Div. Maj Gen G.S. Rawat is not the General Officer Commanding of 19 Inf Div, Maj Gen Khandare is the GOC, 19 Inf Div now.
5. Also it is denied that any permission was ever sought by the GOC for aggressive action against any Pakistani post. No LC transgression has been resorted to by the Indian army in Uri Sector on 06 Jan 13, as alleged.
6. Pakistan has carried out cease fire violations on night 05/06 Jan and controlled retaliation was carried out by own side on January 6, 2013.
Praveen Swami replies:
I indeed erred in designating Brigadier G.S. Rawat as the head of the 19 Infantry Division; he was in fact the Brigade Commander of the 161 Brigade in Uri, which is part of the 19 Infantry Division. The error is regretted.
However, the rest of the Defence Ministry clarification makes little sense. It states that “as per the article, 70-year-old Reshma Bi had crossed the Line of Control on 26 September, 2011.” There is no such claim in the article. It in fact states that she crossed the Line of Control on September 11, 2012. That means there were barely six weeks between her departure and the firing, not sixteen months.
Secondly, the Defence Ministry disputes that the Pakistan Army made announcements over its public address system asking India to cease the bunker construction that followed. However, it does not dispute that it began constructing bunkers — the bone of contention which led to the clash.
Finally, it states that The Hindu charged it with staging a cross-border raid on January 6, 2013. The Hindu story made no such claim: it merely states that Pakistan alleges that Indian troops staged such a raid, along with India’s denial of this allegation.
Thus, the Defence Ministry denial concedes all key elements of The Hindu’s article — i.e., that India constructed bunkers around Charonda, which provoked a Pakistani response, leading to a clash in which Pakistani soldiers were killed, and Indian soldiers were killed in retaliation.
Interestingly, the Defence Ministry does not deny other elements of the story, such as the suggestion that both sides have engaged in cross border raids, which have on occasion included beheadings.
I feel that there is a mistake by the either sides and questioning who
began and who retaliated is like a unending kid's fight. Increasing
hatred just gives rise to more vicious side of the story and cannot be
the way to go forward. It also gives rise to third-party elements to
shift the Pak's focus on India, rather than stabilize itself.
Poor visibility due to fog in the border is one reason for indian
jawans to have been surprised by the pak army who were waiting for the
indian jawans to kill them. Pakistan army is brutal. No love is lost.
If we give our foot soldiers adequate night vision equipment then it
can help them. Indian administration is slow to modernisation and does
not think of pre-emptive strategy. Pakistan is in over drive to influx
terrorists into india. Hence bunkers on the border is necessary for
army. Babus like Mani shankar iyer who fail to understand that Kashmir
is the land of hindus who were oppressed by various islamic invaders
to flee or convert would not understand Pakistan's larger plot to
take kashmir first and all other areas of India one by one. Who will
accept the delay in modernisation of army is reasonable.
the last line "which have on occasion included beheadings".. is quite disturbing..
do people follow this more like a policy...?
when will we put an end to the blood shed?
from when did we start equating our sarkari babus to intelligentsia? for
those who even think of equating so, i urge you to read the original
article by Praveen Swamy, then the clarification by the defense ministry
and finally the rebuttal!
The media must take some responsibility in aggravating fraught international relationships in
the past. It follows that they must accept some self-imposed or external discipline in this
matter. Mr. Swami's article reveals that the recent kind of cross border terrorism and even barbaric actions have not been unusual in the tense stand off in Kashmir between two large armies along a long, tortuous and disputed border under severe climatic conditions. The media have blown this up out of all proportion creating ill-informed public uproar, jeopardizing the relatively peaceful co-existence across this border for almost ten years. We will do well to
remember that it is this kind of media generated uproar that vitiated the issue of the Indo-Chinese border in 1962, the price of which we are still paying.
Hats off to Praveen Swami. This is professional journalism at its best. I had the occasion to watch Swami on CNN IBN talk about his Article in the Hindu, which he did adroitly. Unfortunately, we in India are guilty of righteousness that colours our response on Pakistan. As Mani Shankar Iyer rightly put it, India cannot be right on every issue all the time and Pakistan wrong on every issue all the time. It is commendable that the Government has responded to BJP's baits very carefully and not let their agenda towards normalizing relations slide back. TV Channels in India need to take a deep breath and not pedal hype
Why is this such a big deal? Because the Pak troops engaged in a sneak
attack? So what? This is the nature of the game. They try to sneak up
on us, we try to sneak up on them. This time they succeeded. That
means we had our guard down. The only one to blame here is our own
soldiers. How could a Paki soldier sneak up so close to a soldier to
be able to behead him with a knife? This shows a serious lapse of
security.
We need to stop whining about this and increase our own detection
abilities.
'Interestingly, the Defence Ministry does not deny other elements of
the story, such as the suggestion that both sides have engaged in
cross border raids, which have on occasion included beheadings.'
The defence minister doesn't deny, but can The Hindi confirm such an
action was taken by the Indian Army? The Hindu today claimed that the
Indian army too, last year, in retaliation, indulged in beheading two
Pakistani soldiers. Does the paper or Mr.Praveen Swami back this with
evidence? How can the paper of such repute and caliber allege something so damaging without any knowledge. You are trying to justify this by claiming that the Defence minister 'doesn't deny it'. Shame! The Hindu is known for its factual correctness and righteousness, recent events are denting its image. I request the Editorial board to take serious consideration of this.
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