Srinagar: There was no traditional exchange of sweets or pleasantries between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Rangers at any of the meeting points along the 198-km International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir on Republic Day.
Meanwhile, the 75th Republic Day celebrations were held across Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh with gaiety and enthusiasm amid tight security on Friday. The main ceremonial parade in J&K was held in Jammu’s Maulana Azad Stadium where Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, unfurled the tricolour.
Jammu and Kashmir police women march past during the 75th Republic day function at Bakshi Stadium, in Srinagar, Friday. (Image: PTI)
While speaking on the occasion, he renewed the government’s pledge to “stamp out terrorism and its ecosystem” and said that “concerted efforts” are underway as part of a final assault “to eradicate the unholy proxy war sponsored by a neighbouring country in J&K”.
The official sources attributed the lack of warmth in the relations between the facing border guards along the IB to the recent ceasefire violations in which BSF head-constable Lal Fam Kima, a resident of Aizawl, was killed and four other jawans and a woman resident were injured.
A BSF official said that no directions had been received from the seniors in the paramilitary force (Jammu Frontier) for exchange of sweets with Pakistan Rangers and that the reason for the same was not known.
50-year-old Kima was critically injured in the Pakistani firing in the Ramgarh sector of the IB in J&K’s Samba district on the intervening night of November 8 and 9. He succumbed to his injuries in Jammu’s Government-run Medical College Hospital the same day (November 9).
Earlier on October 27, two BSF jawans and a woman resident were injured in the Pakistan Rangers' firing and shelling in the twin sectors of Arnia and Suchetgarh along the IB called 'Working Boundary' by Islamabad. The BSF had said that two of its jawans were injured in a similar incident in the Arnia sector on October 17. The BSF had alleged that the Pakistani Rangers resorted to “unprovoked” firing on each occasion, forcing its men to retaliate by using the same calibre weapons.
However, Pakistan had in a counter-claim blamed BSF for these incidents and said that its troops had initiated firing on all the three occasions.
Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on October 28 that according to military sources in Islamabad, the firing began after a drone attempted to intrude into Pakistani territory, which was shot down by Pakistani forces. “But Indian forces — ostensibly in a bid to cover up the failed attempt at an incursion — opened indiscriminate fire on Pakistani posts along the Working Boundary,” the report had said.
The two sides had at a meeting of the local commanders held immediately after the October 26-27 firing incidents pledged to abide by the November 2003 ceasefire agreement which was renewed by the military leaderships of the two countries in February 2021. BSF had said that it lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan Rangers over its targeting the Indian forward posts and civilian population along the IB without any provocation at the local commanders meeting. But another ceasefire violation took place just after a few days of this meeting.
Earlier this month, Samba’s District Magistrate, following a request from the BSF imposed night curfew along the IB to ensure a better area dominance by the paramilitary force and to foil possible infiltration bids from across the border and other clandestine unlawful activities in the sensitive frontier region.
The BSF is tasked to guard the 198-km stretch of the India-Pakistan border in Jammu region. Being part of the 2,912 km India-Pakistan border from Gujarat to J&K, it starts at Paharpur in Kathua district and ends at Chicken’s Neck corridor in Akhnoor sector (Jammu district) where the Line of Control (LoC) begins. In India, this 198-km stretch of the borderline is called International Border (IB) but is known as ‘Working Boundary’ in Pakistan as it passes through a “disputed region”. In public parlance it is often referred to as ‘Sialkot-Jammu border’, however.
While the relations between the BSF and the Pakistan Rangers remain strained following the recent ceasefire violations, the Indian Army had exchanged sweets with their Pakistani counterparts on the occasion of Diwali along the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K’s Poonch district.
