The Telegraph report on the Pakistan tip-off claim

New Delhi, June 20: India’s defence establishment was today scurrying for cover after sparking a row with huge diplomatic ramifications since claiming that the Pakistan army had tipped off the Indian Army about infiltrators trying to force their way into Kashmir yesterday.

Even as the UPA government is teetering on the brink over the Left’s opposition to the nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is known to be interested in making a trip to Pakistan.

An instance of Indian and Pakistani armies co-operating in Kashmir against militants would set the perfect stage for a signature visit by Singh.

However, that is not to be.

The Indian defence ministry spokesperson in Jammu who is also an army officer, Lt Colonel S.D. Goswami, had said yesterday that troops of the Indian Army’s 2/8 Gorkha Rifles in Krishnaghati sector along the Line of Control fired at the militants after being informed by the Pakistan army.

This is unprecedented. For years, India has been demanding that Pakistan should demonstrate Pervez Musharraf’s commitment to take on terrorism in Kashmir by acting in concert with India.

Yesterday’s announcement could have signalled the beginning of such joint action till army headquarters vehemently denied the report at night.

This morning army chief General Deepak Kapur asked for a report on the incident and how the information that Pakistan reportedly tipped off the troops was made available.

In army headquarters, there is conviction that Goswami, who reports to the defence ministry, was acting without being briefed by the army.

But the ministry is unwilling to accept that its spokesperson could have put out something as sensational as the Indian and Pakistani armies acting together without being properly briefed.

By the end of the day, the events would leave the army red-faced. Information reaching the ministry suggests Goswami was acting according to his brief.

Yesterday afternoon, the report to the defence ministry said its spokesperson in Jammu was telephoned by the Brigadier General Staff of the 16 Corps in Nagrota, Brigadier Gurdeep Singh, and told there was firing across the LoC in the Krishnaghati (KG) sector.

The brigadier telephoned the spokesperson a few hours later and asked him to change his version with “a twist”.

The Indian Army troops, according to this version that was put out to the media, were in a counter-militant operation. There was intermittent firing on the Indian Army’s post named Deep from small arms and (Chinese-made) Pika guns.

The Indian Army did not retaliate because it did not want to violate the ceasefire, according to this version.

Goswami was also told the information on the movement of militants was shared by the Pakistani army and the Indian troops were acting on that.

This is where the catch lies.

Indian and Pakistani troops have been known to act in concert along the contested Line of Control and the Siachen Glacier on only a few occasions. A semblance of co-operation was seen mostly for humanitarian reasons, in the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of October 8, 2005, and last year, when Indian troops requested aid to retrieve the body of a helicopter pilot in the glacier region.

They are never, not even once, known to have publicly acknowledged co-operation in fighting militants.

Pakistani media has reported that four soldiers were killed on their side of the LoC by unknown attackers.

Indian Army headquarters sources said two militants were killed in firing by troops.

With neither the defence ministry nor the army able to give a clean version of the events yesterday, it is difficult to piece together the incidents.