THE line between catastrophe and the tension-ridden norm along the LoC in the disputed Kashmir region has yet again been shown to be unbearably thin.

On Sunday, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Farooq Haider survived what could have turned into a nightmare attack for the region.

A civilian helicopter carrying the AJK prime minister came under fire from across the Line of Control as Mr Haider travelled to a village along the LoC to condole the death of a relative of a cabinet member.

Predictably, the Indian side has claimed that Mr Haider’s helicopter strayed across the LoC, but AJK officials have denied that to be the case.

It is also unlikely that Indian security personnel mistook Mr Haider’s helicopter to be a military aircraft, which are required to inform forces on the other side of the LoC ahead of flights along the volatile and highly militarised zone.

As ever, the facts are likely to be swallowed up by partisan accusations on both sides.

Yet, the incident on Sunday should serve as an urgent warning to military leaders on both sides of the LoC that if tensions are not reduced and military-to-military communications not increased, disaster could strike at any moment.

Over the years and decades, the pattern that has emerged is that when one side is perceived to have scored a psychological advantage or small gain over the other, the other side seeks to respond.

With no less a person than the AJK prime minister himself coming under attack in murky circumstances, it is perhaps necessary for the DGMOs of the Pakistan and Indian armies to contact each other and reiterate the rules of engagement across the LoC.

The recent bellicose statements of Indian army chief Gen Bipin Rawat, the Indian government’s bizarre spectacle of celebrating a so-called Surgical Strike Day — an attack that Pakistan denies occurred — and the continuing protests in India-held Kashmir against military repression are all contributing to an environment of intolerable tension in the region.

Read more: India’s tirade

While it is clear that India needs to reassess its approach to IHK and on the issues of talks with Pakistan, it does appear that at the moment it is heedless to the demands of peace, normalisation and the lowering of regional tensions.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to force the people of IHK into subjugation through repressive tactics and neither he nor any other Indian leader will be able to take away the legitimate rights of the Kashmiris.

It is Mr Modi who has turned up the heat in the region to near intolerable levels and it is incumbent upon him to lower tensions not only along the LoC and the disputed Kashmir region but between India and Pakistan as well.

Before dialogue, there must be a common-sense acceptance of regional realities. Mr Modi is totally on the wrong track.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2018