Soldiers' mutilation: Pak wants actionable proof

The Indian Army on Tuesday warned Pakistan of retaliation against the “dastardly and inhuman” killing of two Indian soldiers and mutilation of their bodies. Pakistan denied its involvement in the incident, and challenged India to produce “actionable evidence.”

Talking on a hotline, Lt Gen A K Bhatt, India’s Director General of Military Operations, told his Pakistani counterpart Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza the incident went “beyond any norms of civility.”

Bhatt said the killings merited “unequivocal condemnation and response.” The Pakistan commander, for his part, said any Indian “misadventure shall be appropriately responded (to).”

“Allegations of mutilation are an Indian attempt to divert the attention of world from the situation within the Valley. Indian Army should look inwards to probe the incident,” Pakistan army’s Inter-services Public Relations said in a statement issued after the phone conversation.

Within hours, Army Vice Chief Lt Gen Sarath Chand said Pakistan wouldn’t be allowed to slip away so easily. “Pakistan forces supported it (the killing and mutilation). They crossed the Line of Control and came to our territory. They have to take responsibility and face consequences,” he said on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi. Asked to comment on the Pakistani denial, Chand said, “They can’t justify this. If their forces have not done it, who has?”

The Indian DGMO told the Pakistani commander that a Pakistani army post had provided full fire support when the two soldiers were killed in an early morning ambush at Poonch, near the disputed boundary.

During his weekly conversation with the Pakistani commander, Lt Gen Bhatt conveyed India’s concern over Monday’s incident in Krishna Ghati sector in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where Pakistani troops targeted an Indian patrol and mutilated the bodies of two soldiers.

He also said India was unhappy with the presence of Pakistani training camps close to the disputed boundary.

The two DGMOs spoke a day after mutilated bodies of two Indian soldiers Naik Subedar Paramjit Singh from 22 Sikh Infantry and head constable Prem Sagar from 200 battalion of the Border Security Force were found near the LoC.

A third soldier-constable, Rajinder Singh from the BSF, received bullet injuries in his left leg. The patrol was attacked when it was moving from one post to the next inside a wooded area. The Indian Army says the soldiers were ambushed by the Pakistan army’s Border Action Team.

A day after THE BARBARIC ACT
*Army Chief General Bipin Rawat visits forward posts along the LoC in Kashmir and asks troops to thwart “any misadventure” from across the border.
*Army Vice Chief Lt Gen Sarath Chand says: “I would not like to spell out what we are going to do. We will take our own action at a time and place of our choice. Pakistan Army will have to take the responsibility and face the consequences.”
*An increase in fire assault by using medium artillery and mortars may be an option, but army sources are tight-lipped.
*The response will be a “well-thought-out one,” says a senior officer.