'Pakistan's actions are under government's watch'

Sheela Bhatt, who is accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his trips to Russia and China, speaks to a senior source in the government who says that New Delhi is keenly following the developments along the Line of Control.

Pakistan is under watch, a high-level source in the government has told Rediff.com.

It seems the Manmohan Singh government is making strident its stand against the repeated incursions at the India-Pakistan border. The government source in the know of security issues said that New Delhi is analysing the events at the western border and its frequency being compared to the last year.

The source, however, refused to give any date for the proposed talk between director general of military operations (DGMO) of both sides, as agreed upon by Prime Minister Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during their meeting in New York last month.

The senior source said, “Let’s wait and see. We will assess the situation on how it’s developing. We will assess the seriousness on Pakistan side”.

The changing climate of domestic politics following Bharatiya Janata Party's PM candidate Narendra Modi’s blitzkrieg cornering the government and Congress seem to have made the Prime Minister’s Office cautious.

In his speeches Modi is repeatedly using the issue of security to take on the government. It has become one of the main planks of his campaign. 

On October 9, a senior source in government had dismissed the incursion in the Keran sector of Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir on September 24 by some 30 to 40 terrorists as “media hype”. Then, another top level source had said, “It has always been clear that some people choose to make a story out of nothing very much”.

As reported in Rediff.com earlier, while dismissing the event as routine, the source went to the extent of saying, “This for me is the dog chasing the tail, frankly”.

But in just ten days time the senior source of the UPA government thinks that Pakistan has to be kept under watch. The Indian government wants "to study" the incursions, and is giving cold shoulder to any peace moves as of now.

On Sunday when repeatedly asked when will the DGMOs of both the sides hold talks, the government source refused to give any dates. He said, “It’s too early to say when the DGMOs will talk. This time of the year, just before snow starts, we always get spike in the incursions at the India-Pakistan border. We will look at the patterns (of incursions) and draw our conclusions. We will see the nature of change of incursions compared to last year.”

However, he said that the DGMOs are in touch and talking. When Dr Singh and Nawaz Sharif had met in New York it was decided that both the countries will restore calm along the Line of Control. During that meeting the responsibility of re-establishing peace on the border was assigned to the DGMOs.

There seems no respite to India from the ceasefire violations. More than 200 ceasefire violations from Pakistan side have already taken place this year.

On October 19 a Pakistani intruder was killed by the Indian army at the heavily militarised de facto border. 

Image: A soldier patrols near the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir

Photograph: Mukesh Gupta/Reuters