Two days after the barbaric attack by Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) in Kashmir’s Krishna Ghati in which Indian security personnel were killed and their bodies mutilated, it is now believed that the savage ambush was authorised by Pakistani Army’s top brass.
According to a report in the Indian Express, Indian intelligence and military sources said that the attack was authorised by Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Bajwa following his visit to Pakistani military positions in Haji Pir on April 30.
The report cited sources saying that local commanders had underlined the need for retaliatory strikes following the killing of seven to ten Pakistani soldiers in an April 17 Indian artillery attack.
Lt General Nadeem Raza, commander of Pakistan X Corps, responsible for Kashmir, along with Major General, head of the Murree-based 12 Infantry Division, pushed back against concerns that the retaliatory action could lead to escalation along the LoC.
“Ever since the cross-Line of Control strikes that followed the Uri terrorist attack, things haven’t really quietened down. The skirmishing has been costly for Pakistan, and we think it’s trying to show India it is now willing to risk escalation, despite the weakness of its military position on the Line of Control,” an Indian intelligence official was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.
The Indian Army has 200,000-225,000 troops deployed along the LoC, almost double the strength of 100,000-125,000 Pakistani troops.
General Bajwa, who came to office soon after the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes in PoK in the wake of the Uri attack, has placed Kashmir on his agenda, visiting the Kel sector in March, and the shelling-hit Bhimber sector in December and February.
Haji Pir, the site of his April 30 visited, is a strategically-vital pass India had captured in the 1965 war and then returned to Pakistan in a territory swap. It marks the northern end of India’s Krishna Ghati sector in Mendhar, where the ambush took place on Monday.
Sources said that the elite special forces are believed to have monitored the Indian patrol that left Kirpan post, manned by the 200 Battalion of the Border Security Force, early in the morning, in a routine search for improvised explosive devices, knowing it would take cover in the nearest available space when machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades are fired from across the Line of Control.
