The Pakistan Foreign Secretary made a strong démarche to the Indian High Commissioner whom he had summoned to his office on Friday over the second violation of the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir by the Indian forces within a span of five days, resulting in the death of another of our soldier. In their earlier, equally unprovoked, violation, Pakistan had also lost one of its soldiers. Later, briefing the media, Mr Jalil Abbas Jilani said, “We expect the Indian government to ensure that the sanctity of the LoC is maintained at all costs and agreed mechanism is implemented in letter and in spirit” to avoid recurrence of such incidents. Mr Jilani had also put the US and several EU Ambassadors in the picture about these uncalled-for happenings. New Delhi, instead offering regrets over violations by its army, made a counter allegation that Pakistan intruded across the LoC and killed two of its army men. Mr Jilani pointed out that Pakistan wanted the UN Military Operation Group, which was neutral, to probe the whole issue.
The argument of the Indian Foreign Minister that if the two countries could sit together and settle issues, there was no need to approach the UN, would hold water only in case New Delhi was willing to tackle issues with sincerity and meaningfully. That, as Islamabad knows to its dismay, has not been happening. The process of dialogue initiated years ago has not brought them any nearer to solution of any of the issues, due to India’s refusal to solve them in the spirit of justice and fairness.