Ever since the Director General of Military Operations understanding came into existence in February, 2021, there have been just three incidents of ceasefire violations and no incident of shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) as per a Ministry of Defence response to a question in teh parliament.
The dividend is evident with the loss of 24 soldiers and 22 civilians in 2020 when the shelling was at its peak to zero deaths in 2022 and 2023 so far till June.
The details of fatal casualties in respect of soldiers and casualties of civilians during the last three years and current year (till June 2023) due to ceasefire violation are as under:
Year Fatal casualties of soldiers Casualties of civilians
2020 24 22
2021 04 -
2022 - -
2023 (till June, 2023) - -
The Ministry of Defence indicated that appropriate retaliation to the ceasefire violations, as required, has been carried out by security forces.
In addition, all violations of ceasefire are taken up with Pakistan authorities at the appropriate level through the established mechanism of hotlines, flag meetings as well as weekly talks between the Directorate Generals of Military Operations of the two countries.
However, our troops remain prepared for all such eventualities.
Diplomatically, India has repeatedly emphasised at the highest level, the need for Pakistan to uphold the sanctity of the Line of Control and the International Border as its obligations emanating from the understanding in vogue. This information was given by Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to Shri Ashok Kumar Rawat in Lok Sabha.
Dividend for Civilians in Border Areas
Civilians in the border areas perhaps had the greatest dividends. The Print Reported in 2022 that, "There are some five million people that live on both sides of the LoC and it is this population that is always at the receiving end of hostilities. For civilians, the incidents of Cease-Fire Violations (CFVs) often result in fatalities, destruction of property, loss of livestock, curfews, and restrictions on movement, no or little access to schools, healthcare, disruption of agriculture and other commercial activities".
Now all this is passe as for the past almost two and a half years civilians have been able to cultivate the fields right to the border and are not having any loss of lifestock. While bunkers were built for shelter from shelling but disruption in daily lives and livelihood has now been restored.
Comments