I hope that sanity returns soon to the sub-continent and hawkish talk (and now action) of war mongering does not get out of hand. It is all too easy for things to escalate. It is never easy for them to be brought back into control once they have done so.
In what seems to be a case of military provocation and pressure tactics against Pakistan, Indian planes violated Pakistani airspace yesterday. Even though the violations have been officially termed as ‘inadvertent’, two border violations on the same day are a little too much. It will be interesting to see whether international community says anything against these violations or remains silent spectator.
According to latest Dawn update:
ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Indian planes violated Pakistan’s airspace on Saturday, but fighters of the Pakistan Air Force chased them away, military as well as civilian officials confirmed late in the night.
Air Commodre Humayun Viqar Zephyr, a PAF spokesman, told Dawn that the Indian planes intruded into Pakistan’s airspace in Azad Kashmir and Lahore sectors, but left as soon as they sighted the PAF jets.
He said there was no cause for concern as the PAF was “fully alive to the situation and capable of giving a befitting reply in case of a misadventureâ€.
Official sources said President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani were immediately informed about the incident and the matter was taken up with the Indian authorities.
Information Minister Sherry Rehman confirmed that Islamabad had got in touch with authorities in New Delhi, implicitly conceding that the violation did take place. But she hastened to add that Indians had done it inadvertently
From Pakistani side, I am heartened to read the messages of unity where both Government and opposition leaders have put aside their petty differences and unequivocally condemned this act of aggression.
Lets see what effects such violations will have. Will Pakistan now move its armed forces towards Indian border leaving the western border less guarded? With the Pakistani border on both the West and the East being violated routinely, something will have to give? But what? Who will win in such situation? How will such acts effect the democratic government in Pakistan?
Will good sense prevail and will diplomacy prevail over aggression? I certainly hope it does.
Indians should realize that such ‘pressure tactics’ may lead to an eventual WAR in case Pakistan decides to SHOOT down the Su-30 and Mirage 2000 IAF sent to intrude into Lahore and Kashmir airspace.
If we believe Sherry Rehman our info Minister that the intrusion was a ‘technical mistake’ by the Indians, then our shooting the intruding aircraft down (like the Indians shot down an unarmed Pakistan Navy aircraft few years back) can also be categorized as a technical folly!
BTW, the choice of the phrase “pressure tactics” in the title is interesting. There is a plausible case that this claim of “incursion” of IAF aircraft into Pakistani airspace and its blowing up into a major incident (when such airspace “violations”, if you may call them that, happen several a times a year on both sides) was a pressure tactic. The main question is who is pressurizing whom. Think about this.
Its amusing how you folks didnt talk of the whole Mumbai attacks or the whole Laskhar involvement and how these agencies inside Pakistan aided by ISI is bleeding India endlessly… and instead are prompt to curse India…
Isnt there a sane voice in Pakistan to stand up and say that Pakistani’s need to stop these dirty proxy wars…
I hope there is no war. I am in India now – there is no general sentiment for war here. There is anger, but most of it is directed against our own politicians. There is so much anger that states are now withdrawing commandos from security duty for politicians and assigning them to duties they were originally supposed to perform. The politicians, who love the status symbol of a commando security detail would not have forsaken it, except for the widespread anger against them.
Generally, there isn’t mistrust about the motives of the civilian leadership in Pakistan, but there is deep mistrust about the Pakistan army in general and the ISI in particular, something that I share and in fact most of the world shares.
Regarding this particular incident, there is an official denial that there was any aerospace violation. See this article for instance.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/14mumterror-india-denies-iaf-violation-of-pakistan-airspace.htm
The real truth of this incident may never come out, given the history of accusations and denials between the two countries. The only hope is that in the process of games being played, there is no inadvertent slide into conflict.
As an Indian I certainly hope and beleive that this was a mistake and the tension made it go this far. I also hope that better sense will prevail. None of our countries can afford more violence when we should be coming together to fight it.