Nearly two months after signing peace pact, Pakistan violates ceasefire along IB in Samba sector

A Pakistani infiltrator killed as alert BSF personnel foil infiltration attempt along IB in Punjab’s Firozpur

By Bunty Mahajan

Jammu: After a lull of nearly two months, Pakistani Rangers on Monday resorted to unprovoked firing along the international national border in Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba sector, besides trying to push in armed infiltrators in neighbouring Punjab’s Firozpur area.

A Pakistani intruder was killed after alert BSF personnel foiled the infiltration attempt which had been backed by Pakistani Rangers. This followed BSF personel detecting suspicious movement within the Indian territory falling ahead of the barbed wire fence along the border. 

In Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba sector also, Pakistani Rangers resorted to unprovoked fire on Monday morning. Though BSF did not retaliate, sources said that it was keeping a watch on the situation.

Significantly, the infiltration attempt from across the international border in Punjab and unprovoked small arms fire in Jammu’s Samba sector have come nearly two months after both the Indian and Pakistani troops had a DGMO level talks and signed the ceasefire pact agreeing to maintain peace and tranquillity along the borders.

Through the joint statement, both India and Pakistan announced that peace was brokered during a telephone call between the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMO) of the two countries. India and Pakistan agreed to abide by all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and the sectors of the International Border “in the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders”.

There is a hotline service between Indian and Pakistan armies. The officers of the rank of Major speak to one another frequently. Brigadier-level officers talk once in a while. But DGMOs talk very “rarely”. It happened this time and an agreement was reached, the two sides have maintained officially.

This is not the first time that India and Pakistan have agreed to give peace a chance on the LoC to make the lives of civilians living along the line easy. The original ceasefire agreement was reached in November 2003, four years after the Kargil War.

The 2003 ceasefire agreement remains a milestone as it brought peace along the LoC until 2006. Between 2003 and 2006, not a single bullet was fired by the jawans of India and Pakistan.

It is this ceasefire agreement that is referred to as having been violated whenever Pakistan fires at Indian posts along the LoC.

But since 2006, ceasefire violations became the norm with increasing frequency. Recent years have seen an increasing number of ceasefire violations despite an agreement reached in 2018 to adhere to the 2003 ceasefire agreement.

In 2018, more than 2,000 ceasefire violations were recorded. The number of ceasefire violations increased to over 3,400 in 2019 and over 5,000 in 2020. A total of over 14,000 ceasefire violations have taken place since 2006. In 2021, Pakistan has already violated ceasefire close to 600 times.