ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Monday, May 23, 2022
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Associate of notorious Russian arms dealer, Victor Bout, caught in Australia

Fresh India, Pakistan clashes erupt over grandmother’s trip, new border post

January 11, 2013
3 min read

Both sides have lost at least a soldier in days of renewed tensions

A grandmother who slipped across one of the world’s most guarded frontiers and a new border post being built could have been the catalysts for the worst flare-up between the armies of India and Pakistan.

The frontier between the countries in Kashmir has seen the worst flare-up since 2003, a newspaper report and a resident said.

At least four soldiers, two from each side, have been killed in clashes since last Sunday in disputed Kashmir, where the nuclear-armed enemies are separated by a Line of Control (LoC) set up in 1948.

Taken together, it is the worst violation of a nine-year ceasefire along the 740-km zig-zag line across the mountainous Himalayan region, although exchanges of gun and mortar fire are commonplace. Both armies are said to maintain snipers and special assault teams close to the line.

“It is still an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. On some days, people can’t step out of the post. If you come out for water, there is firing,’’ said Gurmeet Kanwal, a retired Indian Army brigadier who has commanded troops on the line.

The two countries have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir, a region they both claim. On at least two other occasions, they have come close to war.

While the two countries share a formal international border to the south, all the way down to the Arabian Sea, the Kashmir ceasefire line is where the armies are on a knife-edge. Strung out on remote outposts in snow-capped mountains and over deep valleys, in some places the soldiers are as little as 50 metres apart.

In other areas, there is a strip of land between the actual line and a barbed wire fence constructed by India. The fighting can be controlled but merciless. Every violation of the ceasefire by one side is replied in kind by the other.

If a soldier is killed on one side, almost certainly one will be killed on the other within days. The roots of this week’s clashes could be traced to Reshma Bi, a 70-year-old woman who slipped across from Charonda village in India-held Kashmir’s Uri district to the Pakistani side in September, to join her sons and grandchildren, India’s The Hindu’ newspaper reported.

Indian authorities, worried on the vulnerability of the LoC, began building a new bunker near the frontier to house additional troops, Reyaz Ahmad, a resident of Charonda, told Reuters. He said it happened soon after Reshma Bi’s flight, but could not say if the two incidents were related.

Subsequently, Pakistani troops began making announcements by loudspeaker asking the Indians not to proceed with the construction. “There were announcements from the Pakistani side for several days to stop the work,’’ Mr. Ahmad said in a telephone conversation.

While the Pakistani position was that any construction within 500 metres (yards) of the LoC was prohibited under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, India proceeded on the grounds that the bunker was facing the village and not the LoC, and so should not be a problem.

“We can build defences on our side of the Loc. They are doing the same thing that they did when we were trying to construct the fence,’’ said a defence official in New Delhi who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Soon after the loudspeaker warnings, firing erupted in the area in October in which India said three villagers were killed, blaming the deaths on Pakistan. Since then tensions have been running high and, last Sunday, a Pakistani soldier was killed in what Islamabad said was a cross-border raid mounted by the Indians.

The Indian Army denied any of its troops breached the control line, but said there had been an exchange of fire. Two days later, further south along the LoC in the Mendhar district, two Indian soldiers were killed in a thick forest after what Indian officials said was a deep incursion into their territory by Pakistani forces.

Indian Brigadier Jayant K. Tiwari, the local commanding officer, said the head of one of the bodies had been “badly severed’’. On Thursday, hostilities erupted again in another part of the ceasefire line, and this time Pakistan said one of its soldiers had been killed.

“It is a live LoC. It’s not marked by boundary pillars. So this is part of the course,’’ said Mr. Kanwal, the retired Indian officer. In Pakistan, a retired general who has also served on the LoC, said the fighting would not escalate. “There will be talks on the hotline between the two sides. They will resolve this,’’ the retired general said.

“It is not something in the scheme of HQ (headquarters), it is a lower level skirmish.’’

Nevertheless, clashes have been rising along the LoC in Kashmir since the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai by militants from Pakistan, which led to a deep chill in ties between the two countries.

Last year, there were 117 violations of the ceasefire, nearly double the previous year’s 61 incidents and up from 57 in 2010, according to Indian government figures. Most have taken place in the southern stretch of the LoC, which India says is the most-used route for infiltration of militants from Pakistan into its side of Kashmir.

“There’s been an increase in ceasefire violations. There’s been an increase in infiltration attempts. That is a fact. And that is something that we are dealing with, both ourselves and with the Pakistani authorities,” Shivshankar Menon, India’s National Security Adviser, told reporters on Thursday.

Pakistan denies it is helping push militants across and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said this week that her country was committed to the ceasefire in Kashmir. With tensions rising in recent days, villagers on the Pakistani side have also reported an increase in military activity.

NAN/Reuters

  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket

CITIZEN-FM AD


Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: Why women cheat: what every Nigerian man should know







PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

Associate of notorious Russian arms dealer, Victor Bout, caught in Australia

Next Post

Jonathan approves appointment of Olatunde Kuye as MD, NEPZA

More News

World Health Organisation

WHA75: Global health leaders want WHO funding model improved

May 23, 2022
A retired justice of the Supreme Court, Ejembi Eko

Supreme Court Justice laments corruption, inequity in Nigeria’s judiciary

May 23, 2022
Saminu Turaki

PDP Primaries: How Jigawa PDP NASS candidates emerged

May 23, 2022
FCT High Court Building

Court convicts ex-Nigerian lawmaker, Chuma Nzeribe, for impersonation, forgery

May 23, 2022
Former Ondo Deputy Governor Agboola Ajayi (PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter)

PDP Primaries: Former Ondo deputy governor wins Ondo South ticket

May 23, 2022
President Muhammadu Buhari met the families of victims of the explosion to express his condolences and that of the nation, the President described the incident as sad and unfortunate.

Buhari meets victims of Kano explosion

May 23, 2022
Next Post
Jonathan condemns coup in Mali, calls for return to democracy

Jonathan approves appointment of Olatunde Kuye as MD, NEPZA

Late Nollywood icon, Enebeli Elebuwa, buried in Lagos

Late Nollywood icon, Enebeli Elebuwa, buried in Lagos

Leave Comment

Search

AUN-PT Ad





Transport-Technology


Stanbic Ad


Access Bank Ad





Glo Ad


Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 1,844,881 other subscribers.

Advertisement






netherland biz school Advert



Zenith Advert

ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • #PandoraPapers
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Opinion
  • The Membership Club
  • Dubawa
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.