ISLAMABAD: The Army on Friday said it had last year recommitted to the ceasefire at the Line of Control for the sake of safety of Kashmiris living on either side of the line dividing the two parts of Kashmir and not as the weaker side.

Military Spokesman Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, through a tweet, challenged Indian Army Chief Gen MM Naravane’s claim, made at a seminar in New Delhi a day earlier, that the ceasefire, agreed last year by the two armies, was holding because his side had “negotiated from a position of strength”.

Gen Babar said the Indian COAS’s claim regarding LoC ceasefire was “clearly misleading”.

“It was agreed only due to Pak’s concerns for the safety of people of Kashmir living on both sides of LoC. No side should misconstrue it as their strength or other’s weakness,” he asserted.

The Indian and Pakistani armies had on February 25 last year, in a surprise announcement, said that “both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the LOC and all other sectors, with effect from midnight 24/25 February 21”.

Spokesman Iftikhar in a tweet challenges Indian army chief’s claim

It had then been further stated that an understanding had also been reached on addressing each other’s core issues and concerns that could disturb peace and lead to violence.

The agreement, announced after a “hotline contact” between Director General of Military Operations of Pakistan Army Maj Gen Nauman Zakaria and his Indian counterpart Lt Gen Paramjeet Sangha, had reportedly followed talks between intelligence agencies of the two countries.

The ceasefire has largely held over the past year and no major incident was reported from the LoC, but contrary to hopes generated by the agreement no further progress towards normalisation was made.

The two arch rivals had originally agreed in 2003 to observe ceasefire along the LoC. The truce breaches restarted after 2008 and a sharp intensification was witnessed since 2014.

Hundreds of civilians on both sides of the divide either lost their lives or were wounded in exchange of fire over the last 14 years.

In 2020, the year preceding the resumption of ceasefire, Indian troops committed over 3000 violations in 2020 in which 27 people were martyred.

Meanwhile, Foreign Office Spokesman Asim Iftikhar, at the weekly media briefing, said Gen Naravane’s statement did not make any sense and it had been made for domestic political reasons.

“No one could logically argue that it (the agreement) was negotiated by some side from the position of strength. It does not make much sense, but you can understand the motives behind such statements in the overall context of India’s malicious approach with regard to issues related to Pakistan and Kashmir, and especially in the context of the ongoing electoral exercises in India, where we often see politically motivated statements and assertions,” he said.

He said that Pakistan took the safety and security of the Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control very seriously.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2022