Pakistan denies raid in front of media

Pakistani military officials pointed to an Indian Army post, high on a forested ridge along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir, and insisted that incursions in the area were impossible as India-Pakistan tensions are at an all-time high.

The Pakistan Army took the rare step of flying members of the international media to the de-facto border to make its case in a battle of competing narratives, after India said its commandos had penetrated up to three kilometres into Pakistan as a part of its anti-militant raids.

The presence of Indian forces so far across the Line of Control (LoC) would be a stinging blow to Pakistan, particularly after the 2011 US raid on its territory that killed Osama bin Laden and was undertaken without its consent.

The media visit on Saturday was planned after India’s Army chief Dalbir Singh congratulated commandos involved in what New Delhi described as “surgical strikes” to take out terrorist launchpads, after a deadly attack on an Indian army base last month. Pakistan has flatly denied the claim, saying two of its soldiers were killed but only in cross-border firing that commonly violates a 2003 ceasefire on the LoC.

The helicopter tour took journalists to sectors just two kilometres from the dividing line, and near the locations India said it targeted in assaults on four militant camps.

The journalists were accompanied by senior local commanders as well as army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa — an omnipresent media personality who has taken centre stage on Pakistani television since the tensions erupted.

In villages like Mandhole, daily life was continuing normally despite the tensions. Shops and businesses were open and children in pressed white uniforms were walking to school.

“You have seen the lay of the land,” said Bajwa, speaking from a command post, overlooking the lush green Bandala Valley and with Pakistani and Indian fortifications visible on the opposite hill.

“You can see the way the fortifications are built and the way Pakistan has layers of defence and they have layers of defence... The LoC cannot be violated,” he said.

“If they’ve caused that damage to us, we don’t know any has been caused to us! You can go and meet the civilian population. Our side is open to the UN mission, to the media, to the general public,” he said. It was not possible to verify the general’s claims, but the villagers who spoke with reporters, visiting areas independent of the military, also appeared to be puzzled.

Sardar Javed, a 37-year-old journalist for Kashmiri newspapers and a resident of Tatta Pani sector, which lies just west of the India-controlled Poonch sector where one of the strikes was said to have been carried out, said he had seen no evidence of a raid.

“I’m not saying it’s not true because that’s the army line. It’s because I’m from the LoC and I’m a local journalist. News spreads fast around here and people get to know whatever happens,” he said. Kashmir is seen as one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints where Indian and Pakistani soldiers watch one another across valleys divided by barbed wire and land mines. The neighbours agreed on the de-facto border in 1972, but both claim the territory in full.

Areas close to the 720-kilometre LoC are normally off bounds, even for Pakistani nationals, and the past three years have seen a surge in cross-border shelling. Tensions have been simmering for months on the Indian side of Kashmir, where more than 80 civilians have been killed, mostly in clashes with security forces during protests linked to the killing of a young separatist in July.

Some Pakistani observers say the raids are an attempt to shift the focus and allow India to escape scrutiny over its actions in Kashmir.

Pakistan-backed militants were blamed for the attack on an Indian Army base last month in which 19 soldiers were killed, prompting calls for action from the Indian public.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has offered to mediate in the dispute as the international community has urged restraint. Pakistan is eager to dispel the notion it harbours terrorists before the world; and that it can be pushed around by its bigger neighbour before its own citizens.