The attack on the BSF camp near airport, the Valleys best defended installation has yet again brought home the rising reach of militancy in the state. Despite the layers of the security checks, the militants managed to sneak deep into the BSF camp, kill an Assistant Sub Inspector and engage the personnel there for close to seven hours. This is despite the fact that the two militants were killed within the first two hours. The attack is of a piece with the recent increase in the number of suicide attacks. The fidayeen attack follows the one on District Police Lines in Pulwama in which eight security personnel were killed. As has been the modus operandi with such attacks, the militants force their way into fortified security camps, engage the security personnel in extended encounters to inflict heavy losses before they are themselves killed. This year there witnessed a return to Fidayeen attacks and ambushes. And some of them like the ones at Pulwama have caused huge losses to the security personnel. Similarly, the Line of Control has been most active this year leading to a significant rise in the civilian and security fatalities.
This is a fraught situation and bodes ill for the peace in the subcontinent. Already, the seven-hour huddle chaired by Pakistans Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has sent the tongues wagging as to its purpose. On the other hand, the Army chief Bipin Rawat has already threatened a second surgical strike inside Pakistan should the need arise. The situation has thus every chance of escalating into a big confrontation. More so, when as a result of the long break in dailogue , the two countries lack the crisis tools to address the deteriorating situation. This calls for urgent measures by both the countries to pull the situation back from the brink.
The primary challenge for the neighbours is to live like normal neighbours which is something they have been singularly unable to do over the past three years. In fact, as the recent border skirmishes have once again underlined the two countries remain farthest from even confronting sanely their issues or handling their respective truths. Even sometimes a small incident brings into play a complex play of history, memory and prejudice. Things have gotten only worse over the years with even a statement by a politician in one country exposing raw nerve endings in another. There is now so much vitriol against each other in a substantial section of public life of the both countries – with media playing a role in fanning it – that it seems unnatural that the two countries could ever be friends. The irresponsible statements emanating from the senior government functionaries in both the countries have further allowed the situation to deteriorate. Best thing that can happen to India and Pakistan under the circumstance is for them to learn to deal with their troubled relationship with a degree of care, maturity and understanding. And this will only happen when they don’t look at the conflict over Kashmir and at their own bilateral relationship through their self-serving narratives.
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