New Delhi, November 26
The ceasefire, which India and Pakistan effected from midnight last night along the International Border, Line of Control and Actual Ground Position Line, was holding well till this evening and no violations were reported, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
The MoD had now told the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMOs) to be in “regular contact” with his Pakistani counterpart, a move which means that the two DGMOs need not feel constricted by a weekly conversation they hold every Tuesday.
However, sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs told The Tribune this evening that the Indo-Pak ceasefire had substantially increased the chances of a high-profile terrorist attack.
“The chances of a terrorist attack are always there. But the ceasefire has added a new dimension and heightened the terrorist threat,” a senior official in the North Block remarked. The top brass of the Government of India was well aware that a die-hard India-hater like Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf could not change his India policy just as a leopard cannot shed his spots and a tiger cannot change his stripes.
Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said India was keeping a close tab on the conduct of the Pakistan Government, Islamabad’s attitude vis a vis the terrorism apparatus and how the ground situation took shape in the coming days and weeks.
The Government of India, with its once-bitten-twice-shy-attitude, had reasons to be suspicious vis a vis Pakistan. There were doubts and apprehensions here that the Pakistani strategy might well be to let loose an even bloodier reign of terror and demonstrate it to the world that this was happening in India when the Pakistani forces had effected a total ceasefire all along the IB, LOC and AGPL.
The intelligence agencies were understood to have highlighted the heightened threat from Pakistan-sponsored terror groups and had warned that a high-profile terrorist attack might place in the hinterland like the Indian capital itself, subtly conveying a message to the international community.
General Musharraf was under watch for another and a more specific reason: the way Islamabad had of late been handling terrorist outfits and banned the six renamed versions of the groups that were banned last year.
All six such transmuted outfits were involved in sectarian killings— something which General Musharraf was deeply worried about.
However, the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s renamed version, Jamat-ul-Dawa had not been banned but put under the watchlist. The reason was not far to seek, the sources pointed out, as the LET, which was already banned last year, had an India-specific charter.
The Jamat-ul-Dawa had organised a congregation at Yarmok close to Patoki, Lahore district, on October 5 where the outfit had openly collected money in the name of jehad and its founder chief Hafiz Sayeed had vowed continued struggle for “Pakistan’s jugular vein: Kashmir”.
It was for reasons like these that India had not talked about the tenure of the ceasefire though Pakistani foreign office spokesman had gone on record saying that Islamabad’s intention was to continue the ceasefire for an indefinite period.
