Get real

New Delhi must demand that Islamabad stop making a mountain out of a molehill and return immediately Indian soldiers who were captured this week. It was not necessary for Pakistan to put two Indian soldiers on video film for display at a Press conference. The Indian Army made it clear that the two jawans were members of a six-man patrol which may have accidentally wandered into Pakistani territory. India advised the Pakistani authorities of the fact that all six men were missing several days ago. This suggests that nothing out of the ordinary was going on. It was a routine patrol. Patrols from both countries sometimes get lost, are captured and are returned without too much fuss after commanders from both sides get talking. These are not ordinary times, admittedly, but the effort should be to return conditions to normal along the border as quickly as possible. If Pakistan needs more assurances about the patrol, they should get them. India has nothing to hide; its concern is at bringing back the soldiers whowandered off course.

Communications between the directors general of military operations have been set up precisely to defuse situations such as these and avoid further misunderstandings. Confidence-building mechanisms will work only so long as both parties want them to. At present, unfortunately, Pakistan8217;s military propaganda machine appears intent on churning out disinformation and keeping tensions alive. This is in no one8217;s interests. For Pakistan8217;s government and the army, it makes no sense to go on flogging a dead horse and accusing India of aggressive action on the border. Pakistan8217;s military spokesman Brigadier Rashid Qureshi8217;s story about the jawans being captured when Pakistan repulsed an attack by a 400-strong Indian force is very far-fetched. It strains credulity that India would give up its signally successful policy of restraint in Kargil and launch a massive force in the Shyok-Turtuk sector. Does Qureshi actually think India would try to alter the LoC when it battled so recently for thestatus quo on the LoC? That such scenarios continue to be painted in all seriousness by Pakistan is disturbing. It suggests that not all elements in the military are reconciled to reality.

The longer they nurture futile hopes of gaining some advantage from the present situation the longer the border scenario will remain messy. Even now, more than a month after hostilities in Kargil ended, there are mutual allegations about attempts to take military posts, incidents of heavy firing, casualties, and a high state of alert along the whole border from Jammu to Siachen. This must stop. By releasing Indian soldiers in its custody without trying to squeeze some propaganda victory out of it, Pakistan can do something purposeful to bring the temperature down. India acted humanely in exhuming and handing over the bodies of Pakistani soldiers to their families at their request. Pakistan is not required to go out of its way to do the correct thing but simply to return to military practices which are helpful inmaintaining peace and calm on the border. That is not too much to demand.