Visuals of the terrorist attack on an Army vehicle in the area of Poonch district of Jammu & Kashmir on April 20, 2023 show charred bodies of soldiers lying around. The Army released a statement saying, "An Army vehicle moving between Bhimber Gali and Poonch in the Rajouri sector in J&K was fired upon by unidentified terrorists today. The vehicle caught fire, due to the likely use of grenades by terrorists. Five personnel of the Rashtriya Rifles Unit deployed for Counter Terrorist operations, in this area, have unfortunately lost their lives in the incident".
Another soldier, who sustained serious injuries, was evacuated immediately to the Army Hospital at Rajouri, and is currently under treatment.
Security forces have launched a massive search operation in the dense forests of the Bata-Doriya area. The entire area has been cordoned off. Drones and sniffer dogs have been deployed and a high alert has been sounded in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team has been sent to the site of the attack for investigation. The terrorists would perhaps be nabbed or eliminated if they have not already slipped into Pakistan occupied Kashmir using a tunnel or overland route.
Political statements and politically-motivated protests and anti-Pakistan sloganeering are on to show that lives of soldiers matter. One post on social media reads: “May we lose our sleep? May we do something to stop this forever or die in shame for being responsible for such condition of our soldiers?
“We failed to ensure a dignified death to our soldiers, brother protectors who gave their all to save us with their life. Sleep not my nation – stop this – save our soldiers… Don't forgive us dear brothers - you didn't deserve such death – we don't deserve your sacrifices. It's high time for the politicians and leaders to own up the responsibility.”
The anguish in the above post reflects the soft state we are in. Notwithstanding the chest thumping, the ‘surgical strike’ and ‘Balakot strike’ were undertaken in response to casualties suffered in Uri and Pulwama respectively. Similar was the reason behind the raids in Myanmar, a response to suffering heavy casualties in an ambush in Chandel district of Manipur. Calling these reactive actions ‘proactive’ is nothing but political skullduggery.
The terror attack in Poonch has happened amid the recent statement by Satya Pal Malik, former Lieutenant Governor of J&K, on the 2019 Pulwama car-bomb attack in which 40 CRPF personnel died. Political mudslinging will continue whether the 2019 Pulwama bombing was an inside job or not and the degree of intelligence failure.
But two things were clear: one, not a single officer accompanied the 72-vehicle convoy carrying over 2500 CRPF personnel, and, two, the ease with which terrorists fired on the convoy ‘after’ the blast indicated the road opening parties were grossly ineffective. But no heads rolled and the then Home Minister Rajnath Singh had nothing to say on these issues.
Terror incidents in J&K undoubtedly have come down but politicians talking of “zero terror” are not only naïve, but also show a poor understanding of how little effort is needed to keep terrorism going. The terror attack in Poonch proves this, as did the encounter with Maoists in February 2023 in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma in which three security personnel were killed and two injured. A month earlier in January 2023, Maoists opened fire on a helicopter and injured six security personnel.
We have yet to demonstrate to Pakistan that we have the political will for quid-pro-quo within 24 hours, if not instant. We bang the table in Parliament saying we will take back Aksai Chin but then withdraw from the Kailash Range like a wet pussycat?
That is why twitter handles of Pakistan’s DGISPR say Poonch was not a terror attack but a fuel tank burst of the vehicle; if terrorists fired, where are the cartridges? Pakistan would naturally not admit that terrorist grenades would have targeted the fuel tank and inside of the vehicle. In fact, there is a strong possibility that terrorists used steel-capped bullets and Chinese grenades to target the fuel tank of the vehicle.
With the G20 presidency, India is conducting some 200 meetings across the country. The meeting held at Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh in March 2023 upset China, as should be the case with Beijing’s illegally claiming Arunachal. The third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting scheduled in Srinagar between May 22 and 24 has naturally angered Pakistan and its only recourse is terrorism though denying any involvement.
We also seem to forget that every time a Pakistani delegation came to India in the past, it was either preceded by a terror attack and/or cross-border firing or coincided with the Pakistani delegation present in India. Now Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is leading the Pakistan delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) scheduled in Goa on May 4-5.
Bilawal’s anti-India stance and publicly calling Prime Minister Modi the “butcher of Gujarat” are well documented. Therefore, the Poonch terror attack is no surprise and more may follow especially around the G20 tourism working group meeting in Srinagar in the second half of May.
Addressing a function at Rishikesh-based Parmarth Niketan ashram in October 2020, NSA Ajit Doval said, “It is not necessary that we only fight where you want to, but where the threat originates… India fights where we feel the threat is coming. We have never done it for selfish reasons. We will surely fight, on our soil and on foreign soil, but not for our personal interests. But in the interests of parmarth (spirituality).”
News agency ANI later quoted government officials as saying that the NSA was speaking purely in a civilisational and spiritual context and was “not” referring to any country or specific situation. Why are we apologetic and afraid?
Should we be ashamed of not arresting Khalistani Amritpal Singh despite the fact he was openly providing arms training to youth at his native place? What about Kiran J. Patel posing as an Additional Director (Planning and Strategy) in the Prime Minister’s Office, accorded Z-plus security and 5-star hotel stay during his two visits to J&K? These, with all intelligence agencies under the NSA who himself has served in the Intelligence Bureau.
Maloy K Dhar, former Joint Director IB, wrote in his book ‘Open Secrets – India’s Intelligence Unveiled’ that the entire intelligence effort in India is focused on “how to take down the Opposition”. Has anything changed?
Finally, our pusillanimous response to China’s 2020 aggression in Ladakh despite the exhortations of “not even one inch of territory lost” is an open book. But let us at least transport Pakistan’s proxy war back into Pakistani territory rather than singing lullabies that everything is normalized in J&K.
Cover Photograph PTI
Lt Gen Prakash Katoch is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed are personal.