Round
The World
New Delhi, 27
November 2020
Nagrota Encounter
INCORRIBLE PAKISTAN!
By Dr. D.K. Giri
(Prof, International Relations, JIMMC)
On 19 November, four
terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad were gunned down by Indian security
forces in an encounter at Nagrota. This was an unusual occurrence as the
terrorists had sneaked into India through a tunnel, built at Samba sector of Jammu
& Kashmir. Also, ironically, Pakistan, battling to come out of the grey
list of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) in February 2021, is still engaged
in sponsoring cross-border terrorism. Pakistan is simply incorrigible. New
Delhi has rightly launched a timely diplomatic offensive to put it in the dock.
The objective, obviously, is to deny Pakistan an exit from FATF grey list, and
to reiterate the charge that Pakistan is the hub of terrorism.
Let’s get the facts
on the recent encounter. Four terrorists travelling to Srinagar in a truck were
intercepted at the Ban Toll Plaza in Nagrota. A heavy gun fight with security
forces ensued and all four were killed. The attempt by security forces to catch
one of them alive didn’t succeed. So the information on their whereabouts could
be obtained by the things found on their bodies. The forces did a commendable
job in tracing their movement and scanning the tunnel.
The underground
tunnel was difficult to locate as its mouth was carefully camouflaged with soil
and wild plants. The tunnel, 200 meter long, 8 meter deep and 12-14 inches
diameter is 160 meters long from the international border and 40 meters long on
Pakistan side. According to the BSF spokesman, “It appears that proper
engineering effort has gone into making the tunnel, which shows the hand of the
establishment (Pakistan).”
True to their valour
and sprit, an Indian soldier (Commandant Rathore of 173 Battalion) crawled 150
ft into the tunnel and found packets of biscuits and other food wrappers marked
as Lahore-based product with November 17, 2020 as expiry date. With the help of
Taiwan-made device, Indian securities agencies have been able to track the
exact route the jihadists took. After entering India through the tunnel, they
walked nearly 12 kms to the National Highway No.44 to board a truck heading
towards Srinagar. On the way, they bypassed an army camp and a railway track. The
security forces chased and challenged them near Nagrota.
There is sufficient
evidence to nail Pakistan to have sponsored these terrorists. Cement bags used
to fortify the route for the terrorists had Pakistani marks. While registering
a case in a police station in Nagrota, the list of things found from them
consisted of 1.5 lakh INR, wire cutters, Chinese Black Star Pistols and
grenades numbering 29, assault rifles, nitrocellulose oil explosives. The
forces claim that such explosives were used in the 2019 Pulwama attack. So it
appears that terrorists had plans for a major operation in India. Alarmed by
the infiltration through the tunnel, the BSF has engaged the special tunnel
inspection teams to trawl the international border with Pakistan.
The J&K Police
and the BSF are rightly claiming the spotting of the tunnel as a big success. DGP
Dilbagh Singht told the press that, “after lot of hard work the Police and the
BSF were able to find the tunnel coming from Pakistan’s Chakbura Post within 76
hours of the encounter”. He also asserted that everything recovered from the
slain militants, from phones to shoes, to medicine, all have Pakistan’s imprint.
Therefore, there is no escape for Islamabad from its involvement in this
incident.
Having established
Pakistan hand in the infiltration of JeM terrorists, what is New Delhi doing
and is it enough? Evaluating the Indian response, one finds that New Delhi has
gone on a diplomatic offensive to hold Pakistan accountable. On 23 November,
Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, who has been quite active recently touring
Europe, Nepal and other countries, briefed the envoys of a few important
countries including the US, Russia, France and Japan, with a detailed
information docket. The same docket has been sent to Indian Missions abroad for
briefing respective countries. Shringla focussed on, “implications of the
incident (Nagrota) on security diplomacy and the battle against terrorism.
New Delhi summoned
the Pakistan’s Charge d’ Affaires Aftab Hassan Khan on November 21 and warned
Pakistan in no uncertain terms. He was told that New Delhi is “committed to
take all necessary measures to safeguard its national security”. South Block
also demanded that Islamabad abstain
from supporting terrorists and nurturing terror infrastructure on its
territory. It appears that such briefings will continue to be done. Several
secretaries in the Ministry will brief Heads of Missions from countries in
their respective areas of jurisdiction.
There are conjectures
about the timing and the type of the attack. Vested interests, terror networks
and Pakistan are wary of India taking new initiatives in J&K and the State
normalising into peace and harmony. The government thinks this was no ordinary
infiltration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “nefarious attempt to
target grassroots level democratic exercises in Jammu & Kashmir”. He was
obviously alluding to the District Development Councils due to start on
November 28.
New Delhi, seeking to
apprise the international community, may have a two-fold strategy. The first is
to announce to the world that it should acknowledge the grave security risk
India is at. It continues to face cross-border terrorism emanating from
Pakistan. The second is to put Pakistan on the mat, especially in the context
of FATF reviewing the decision on it and to see if it could be black listed.
However, New Delhi
should be conscious that internationalising the issue might invite intervention
on the resolution of Kashmir issue. One need not fight shy of such eventuality.
The stated position so far is that it is bilateral, as per the Shimla Agreement,
and it should be resolved by negotiations between New Delhi and Islamabad. But
the dialogue has not gone anywhere, in fact, it has not even started. India
insists that ‘talks and terrorism’ cannot go together. Pakistan has to give up
cross-border terrorism before it comes to the negotiating table. Islamabad’s ridiculous
contention is that it is not involved in any terrorism and is willing to talk.
In all fairness, and
as a matter of real politik, New Delhi should agree to talk to Pakistan with
the condition that as they talk, not a single bullet should be fired and not a
single terrorist infiltrates into Indian territories. New Delhi is dialoguing
with China on border de-escalation whereas China has clearly invaded the no
man’s land and has been salami-slicing Indian territories. Chinese position is
that “we will negotiate but not budge an inch from our occupation”. India need
not be so duplicitous as China, but genuinely offer to talk to Pakistan.
The other option is
to cow down Pakistan by retaliatory attacks as New Delhi has at times done. The
China and nuclear angles exist as risks in any military operation. But these
risks are over-estimated, and at any rate have to be mitigated. New Delhi
cannot go on forever being a responder on Kashmir issue, it has to take the
fight into the enemy camp and to a logical end. The present government appears
determined and is doing things on the Indian side of Kashmir but the strategy
beyond is unclear. It is time that it unfolds. --- INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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