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Journalism of Courage
SRINAGAR, Aug 24: The discovery that foreign militants in Kashmir possess anti-aircraft guns — one of which was recovered from Kupwara — has increased the security forces’ concerns about air safety. The Russian gun of 1924 make, named DSCHK, was recovered by Border Security Force (BSF) troops from Shumbrial village in the border district of Kupwara. The spot where the vintage gun was buried is located just a few kilometres from the Army’s divisional headquarters.
Although officials are trying to take a dispassionate view of the startling news, sources in the forces say the discovery has confirmed their worst fears about the safety of the helicopters which often fly past the border areas. The 12.7-millimetre gun is capable of hitting low-flying helicopters and planes.
“The gun seems to have found its way to Kashmir from Afghanistan where the guerrilla probably captured it from Russian army”, sources said.
However, intelligence agencies claim the gun had been transported across the border nearly a year ago and that a militant belonging to a foreign mercenaries-dominated militant group had personally ferried it across.
Sources however do not rule out the possibility of one or two more anti-aircraft guns in Kashmir. The gun lay unused apparently due to the non-availability of an expert handler.
It had been kept there for nearly one year and they were probably on the lookout for a trained mercenary who could handle it”, sources said.
The massive gun comprises nearly 96 components and attachments. It had not been re-assembled and sources said this could be prompted by future plans to shift it to some other site.
Although the authorities are keeping the modus operandi of the recovery of the gun a secret, it is reliably leant that a captured militant had accompanied the BSF troops to the site where it lay buried.
“The first inkling of the presence of the anti-aircraft gun came from the militants group’s wireless communications”, a top level officer involved in the operation said. Even the police had received the information about the gun.
Museum vs Hospital
Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral preferred to take a look at the assorted arms captured from militants in Kashmir, than visit the soldiers injured in the anti-militancy war, during his one-day visit to Kashmir on Friday.
The Prime Minister digressed from his itinerary, visiting the museum at Srinagar’s Badami Bagh cantonment and left for Delhi thereafter, reportedly leaving the soldiers hurt and humiliated.
LoC flare-up aimed at thwarting Army supplies
The latest flare-up on the highly sensitive frontier between India and Pakistan, the Line of Control (LoC) is being regarded with “great seriousness” and is “not a localised affair”, according to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) source.
Though the motives behind this escalation of tension are yet unclear with many in the MoD holding the rather simplistic opinion that the incidents since August 22 are ostensibly designed by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate of Pakistan to queer the pitch for the upcoming foreign secretary-level talks. A ground analysis would, however, throw light on two obvious reasons. Most likely is the imperative of winter stocking for the division strength India maintains in the Ladakh region.
With the focus of firing being Tangdhar and Kargil there is reason to believe the winter stocking angle, for the highway is within the range of fire. Currently, pressure mounts both on civil and military transport to move supplies, since going by the weather patterns there remain about four weeks to safely move the supplies into Ladakh, since soon thereafter the Zoji La pass will close for winter until next June. And a single day’s transportation aborted due to the former circumstances entails a deprivation of several hundred tonnes of fuel and food for Ladakh and its soldiers.
Secondly, the omnipresent issue of infiltration for sustaining the ensuing war in the Valley. The significantly high number of attempts thwarted by our troops this season could well be a factor.
