The heavy snowfall in Kashmir triggered massive avalanches especially in the upper reaches of north Kashmir where besides civilian population thousands of troopers are deployed on the Line of Control. After two decades Kashmir observed one of the harshest winter and more than 12 feet of snow was recorded on the upper reaches of north Kashmir that triggered series of avalanches and caused death to more than 20 soldiers in Gurez and Kupwara. The soldiers who lost their lives were deployed on the LoC and due to the vagaries of weather the bodies of the dead soldiers couldn’t be airlifted for five days. As the bodies were lying at the army bases, the Army chief Bipin Rawat gave a controversial statement saying besides global warming the shelling from Pakistan was responsible for the death of soldiers. In fact, the Army chief wanted to blame Pakistan for killings of these soldiers. Being a responsible army chief who heads more than one million troopers of the world’s largest democracy the statement was irresponsible. Blaming everything on Pakistan shows how deep the animosity is between two neighboring nations who share similar roots before partition. The statement seems to be ill timed especially after Pakistan had released a soldier Chandu Chavan who had crossed the LoC in advertently in September last year. This type of statement can be expected from some irresponsible politician but you never expect such a statement from the army chief. Instead of looking into follies that led to death of soldiers and improving conditions of the soldiers living on the LoC and borders under extreme circumstances is very unfortunate and time has come when both the nations should take steps to deescalate tension on the borders, especially after release of Chandu Chavan by Pakistan.
From the print edition of Feb 1 to 7, 2017.
