The guns fell silent when PM was in Pak

An impression, then, which is gaining ground in security circles is that this unusual period of peace on the LoC is Pakistan Army’s signal that it, too, wants a breakthrough in relations between the two countries. “There is no doubt that the Pakistani Army has made its preference known veryclearly. The informal 24-hour ceasefire on the LoC is the surest indicator of this mood. They want Nawaz Sharif to go ahead with the talks,” said an informed Army officer.

On the controversy over the absence of the three service chiefs at Wagha, officers are surprised at what they call “needless” speculation. They point to the fact that had the President of India been in the bus, the service chiefs would certainly have been in the reception party. “Their ceremonial role is to heads of state, not heads of government. In parliamentary democracies, that is the commonly followed practice. In any case, they were at the Governor’s House in Lahore, in uniform, to receive our PM. And they obviously saluted him, so this din over Wagha, uniform, salutes and enemy country is simply untrue. Being professional soldiers, they are committed to the talks,” said the Army officer.

When questioned about the massacres in Rajouri-Udhampur districts the night before the bus trip, now virtually a routine before Indo-Paktalks, officials in the MoD and elsewhere are convinced that it was directed by a section of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). The widespread belief in South Block is that the massacres were directed and engineered by middle and junior level officials of the ISI.

“After all Nawaz Sharif has cleaned up the top level of the ISI, from the Director General to the Brigadiers. The DG, who is from the same background as Sharif, was personally moved by him from his post as the Adjutant General to head the ISI. So there is little likelihood of the top level conspiring to sabotage the talks,” said South Block sources. “The indications are that even the Lahore violence was engineered by this group of middle and junior level officers in order to provoke the Nawaz Sharif government. That the police in Lahore observed impeccable restraint despite what must have been an exasperating situation is as evidence as well that most of the Pakistani state is committed to the talks,” said anofficer.