NEW DELHI: The ceasefire with Pakistan along the Line of Control has begun to fray with firing of small arms being reported from multiple locations since Thursday night, though big guns like howitzers and large mortars are yet to open up from either side to blow it to smithereens.
The escalation in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror massacre came as Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi was in J&K to review the overall operational situation along the 778-km LoC as well as the counter-terror operations, with Udhampur-based Northern Command chief Lt-Gen MV Suchindra Kumar and his successor Lt-Gen Pratik Sharma, among other top officers.
“Gen Dwivedi directed all formations to remain on the highest alert,” an officer said, in the backdrop of PM Modi and other top ministers promising deadly retribution as all military options for limited punitive strikes against Pakistan are on the table.
A major incident of prolonged exchange of fire across the heavily-militarized LoC began at the Tutmari Gali sector in the Kupwara district of J&K around midnight, with Pakistani soldiers “initiating” heavy firing by assault rifles and light machine guns with “tracer bullets” at Indian Army posts.
Indian troops deployed in the area “effectively” responded, with the exchange intermittently continuing for a few hours. “If the Pak troops fired around 600 rounds at our posts, our soldiers retaliated with over 1,300 rounds. There were no casualties on our side,” an officer told TOI.
The exchange of fire at other places like Uri, Poonch, Tangdhar and Gurez was not so intense, with jumpy Pakistani soldiers largely indulging in “speculative firing” to elicit responses from the Indian side to pinpoint their positions. “The Pak Army is obviously on the edge and expecting a big Indian reaction,” the source added.
The LoC has been relatively quiet since the rival director-generals of military operations reached a fresh understanding in Feb 2021 after a particularly violent year that saw as many as 5,133 ceasefire violations. Howitzers, 120mm mortars and anti-tank guided missiles were then often being used in a “direct firing mode” to cause maximum damage on the other side.
Away from the LoC, the IAF has stepped-up its fighter sorties from air bases on the western front, stretching from Srinagar and Awantipur in J&K to Rajasthan, and kept its surface-to-air missile systems and other ground-based weapons on a high alert, sources said.
The precautionary measures include enhancing the number of ORPs (operational readiness platforms) at various IAF air bases. An ORP usually includes two to three fighters being kept combat-ready in blast pens adjoining the runway at an airbase for immediate take-off whenever an alarm is sounded.
Military officers say if the govt decides to go for some limited military action against Pakistan, the options range from the less-escalatory punitive artillery fire assaults across the LoC to precision air strikes by fighters like Rafales, Mirage-2000s and Sukhoi-30MKIs armed with long-range weapons like the French `Scalp’ air-to-ground cruise missiles, Israeli Crystal Maze missiles and Spice-2000 precision guided penetration bombs.
The escalation in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror massacre came as Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi was in J&K to review the overall operational situation along the 778-km LoC as well as the counter-terror operations, with Udhampur-based Northern Command chief Lt-Gen MV Suchindra Kumar and his successor Lt-Gen Pratik Sharma, among other top officers.
“Gen Dwivedi directed all formations to remain on the highest alert,” an officer said, in the backdrop of PM Modi and other top ministers promising deadly retribution as all military options for limited punitive strikes against Pakistan are on the table.
A major incident of prolonged exchange of fire across the heavily-militarized LoC began at the Tutmari Gali sector in the Kupwara district of J&K around midnight, with Pakistani soldiers “initiating” heavy firing by assault rifles and light machine guns with “tracer bullets” at Indian Army posts.
Indian troops deployed in the area “effectively” responded, with the exchange intermittently continuing for a few hours. “If the Pak troops fired around 600 rounds at our posts, our soldiers retaliated with over 1,300 rounds. There were no casualties on our side,” an officer told TOI.
The exchange of fire at other places like Uri, Poonch, Tangdhar and Gurez was not so intense, with jumpy Pakistani soldiers largely indulging in “speculative firing” to elicit responses from the Indian side to pinpoint their positions. “The Pak Army is obviously on the edge and expecting a big Indian reaction,” the source added.
The LoC has been relatively quiet since the rival director-generals of military operations reached a fresh understanding in Feb 2021 after a particularly violent year that saw as many as 5,133 ceasefire violations. Howitzers, 120mm mortars and anti-tank guided missiles were then often being used in a “direct firing mode” to cause maximum damage on the other side.
Away from the LoC, the IAF has stepped-up its fighter sorties from air bases on the western front, stretching from Srinagar and Awantipur in J&K to Rajasthan, and kept its surface-to-air missile systems and other ground-based weapons on a high alert, sources said.
The precautionary measures include enhancing the number of ORPs (operational readiness platforms) at various IAF air bases. An ORP usually includes two to three fighters being kept combat-ready in blast pens adjoining the runway at an airbase for immediate take-off whenever an alarm is sounded.
Military officers say if the govt decides to go for some limited military action against Pakistan, the options range from the less-escalatory punitive artillery fire assaults across the LoC to precision air strikes by fighters like Rafales, Mirage-2000s and Sukhoi-30MKIs armed with long-range weapons like the French `Scalp’ air-to-ground cruise missiles, Israeli Crystal Maze missiles and Spice-2000 precision guided penetration bombs.
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