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LoC turns into Line of Chaos amidst J&K Ceasefire Violations

  • Writer: Tejas Rokhade
    Tejas Rokhade
  • Apr 14, 2020
  • 4 min read

According to Indian intelligence reports, 15 Pakistan army troopers along with eight terrorists were killed on April 10, after the latter initiated heavy artillery fire in the civilian area of Keran in J&K. Considering this as a violation of the 2003 ceasefire accord agreed for Line of Control (LoC), tensions flared between India and Pakistan. Complete Coverage: Coronavirus


Crux of the Matter


What’s a Ceasefire Violation? A ceasefire (or truce), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other, to suspend aggressive actions. Dating back to the times of World War I, they may be declared as part of a formal treaty or an informal understanding between opposing forces. So a ceasefire violation is a direct breach of the mutually agreed upon peace agreement.

There have been frequent incidents of ceasefire violations by Pakistan, ever since India announced its decision to withdraw the special status of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and revoked Article 370, in order to bifurcate the state into two union territories in August 2019.

Indian Army data shows 1,197 Pakistani violations in 2020. The Pakistan military has recorded 705 ceasefire violations by the Indian Army during the same period.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Multiple Sources report that the army operation started after the footage from an UAM (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) picked up screenshots of an infiltration attempt in the Keran sector of J&K on Saturday, 4th April 2020. Five Indian soldiers of the 4 Parachute unit were airdropped, 6 feet away from the invaders at the LoC (Line of Control), as heavy snow had restricted movements on the regular army unit responsible for action there.

Screenshot of the Indian Army’s strike across the LoC

Thereby, the squad led by Subedar Sanjeev Kumar spotted the terrorists’ footsteps, visible in the rough yet snowy terrain and followed the trail. Unfortunately three members of the squad stumbled into a gap midway, right on top of the infiltrators hiding there. In the battle that ensued in point blank range, the terrorists naturally had an advantage. But the elite commandos managed to put up a strong fight and took down the 5 militants. The Indian soliders later succumbed to their own injuries. The search party which later went to the site, said that it was unusual that the battleground bore the signs of a close-quarter, hand to hand fight because most encounters take place from a safe distance.

The Departed The brave members of the Indian squad included Havildar Davendra Singh and Paratroopers Bal Krishan, Amit Kumar and Chhatrapal Singh.


In one of the most brutal encounters along the #LoC in recent times, five commandos belonging to an elite unit of the @adgpi were killed after an intense close-quarter fight with an equal number of terrorists who had infiltrated into #India. @hussain_imtiyaz @manupubby pic.twitter.com/AVInCxNbgI — JammuKashmir5 (@JammuKashmir5) April 7, 2020

Out of five terrorists killed, three belonged to J&K and the others were trained with the notorious Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Pakistan based Jihadi group active in Kashmir.

Pak Making Best Out of a Pandemic As per findings by the security agencies in Kashmir, Pakistan has been collaborating with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to push the COVID-19 infected Pakistani terrorists into J&K. This would get their hands off the sick in their nation while causing havoc on the other side.


Living under the fear of shelling & #CoronaVirus at the same time. This is the life of people living near #LOC. The madness haven’t reduced even in the times of World’s Health Emergency. pic.twitter.com/w0vpZFzUGu — Adv Bashir Dar (@bashirdar01) April 12, 2020

Moreover LeT has started recruiting its cadre from the Sindh province of Pakistan, which has recently been recorded as the Pakistani state with the highest number of Coronavirus cases, crossing the 1,000-mark.

What’s in Store for Both? India has issued a strong demarche to Pakistan, which is a diplomatic correspondence on a given subject from one government to another government or intergovernmental organization. This move comes after three innocent Indian civilians were killed in what they believe was an unprovoked ceasefire infringement by Pakistan and released subsequent footage of terror launch pads, gun positions and an ammunition dump found across the LoC.

Watch | 5 days after 5 Special Forces soldiers were killed in a major high altitude encounter in J&K's Kupwara, the Indian Army released drone footage of a major Indian retaliation in the same sector. pic.twitter.com/NbPqkPPGWD — NDTV (@ndtv) April 10, 2020

In the meantime, Pakistan thinks India is raising a false flag operation, to divert attention from the ongoing issues in Jammu and Kashmir. It further added that it had simply countered the ‘Indian’ assault by targeting ‘Indian’ Army posts along the LoC with matching weapon calibre. The Foreign Office said that Director General (South Asia & SAARC) Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri summoned Indian Charge d’Affaires Gaurav Ahluwalia to lodge a complaint for the same.

Curiopedia


  1. The term Line of Control (LoC) refers to the military control line between India and Pakistan which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary but serves as the de facto border. Originally known as the Cease-fire Line, it was redesignated as the “Line of Control” following the Simla Agreement, which was signed on 3 July 1972.

  2. One of the first conflicts on LoC happened in 1984, which is called “Operation Meghdoot”. Launched on 13 April 1984, this military operation was the first assault launched in the highest battlefield in the world, Siachin glacier.

  3. LOC has also witnessed some peacemaking activities like, in 2005, a limited bus service was set up to ferry passengers across the LoC from Srinagar, Indian Kashmir’s summer capital, to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir and after a massive earthquake in 2005, both the countries opened several crossing points on the LOC to swap aid and allow families to meet.

Fencing near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India & Pakistan at Silikote, Uri

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