NEW DELHI: The
Baramulla attack which left a
BSF soldier dead has strengthened the suspicion that Pakistan’s response to
India’s surgical strikes may come not in the form of military aggression but through more terror attacks in the valley and other places.
While claiming to have behaved responsibly by not taking
military action against India ’s “cross-LoC firing”, Pakistan army may use such terror strikes by LeT and JeM jihadis to fuel the perception that
Kashmir needs international attention . Its decision to take Islamabad-based foreign media to the LoC is being seen as part of this strategy.
The incredulity displayed by several well-known international media houses whose representatives travelled to the LoC will most likely be seen by
Islamabad
as early gains in its attempts to also convince Pakistanis that Indian troops never crossed the LoC.
Pakistan needs time to prepare for a concerted military response — if indeed it believes such a response is required to deter Indian forces from entering PoK — but, ironically, Islamabad’s denial of cross-LoC strikes also suits India as it precludes any military escalation in the immediate run.
India has repeatedly said that it only carried out counter-terror strikes and
DGMO Ranbir Singh assured his counterpart immediately after the
surgical strikes that India did not intend to conduct more such raids. The Army has hardly given any information about how the strikes were conducted as the Centre seems to believe that giving such details would push Islamabad into a corner where it might be tempted to take military action. What this approach does not preclude though is an Uri-like attack on an Army establishment or indeed terror strikes in other parts of the country.
As US strategic affairs expert and former adviser to President Barack Obama Bruce
Riedel
told TOI, India has upped the stakes with its operation and Pakistan’s chief of army staff (COAS)
Raheel Sharif
won’t back down. “He probably will plan a response that ups the ante more. And the crisis may extend his term. The PM (
Nawaz Sharif) does not want a fight with the COAS,” Riedel said.