Disconnect between Pak army HQ and troops: Indian DGMO

• The Indian DGMO has drawn his Pakistani counterpart's attention to the apparent "disconnect" between the country's army headquarters and its troops along the LoC
• He also reiterated that the Indian Army maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians in any manner

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army on Saturday told Pakistan that there appeared to be a "disconnect" between its army headquarters at Rawalpindi, which professes a desire for peace, and its troops on the ground along the Line of Control, who resort to heavy firing and ceasefire violations without any provocation.

"Indian director-general of military operations, Lt-Gen AK Bhatt, told his Pakistan army counterpart (Major General Sahir Shamshad Mirza) to resolve this existing credibility gap to ensure peace and tranquility is maintained along the LoC," said an officer.

This message was conveyed to the Pakistani DGMO after he called Lt-Gen Bhatt for "unscheduled talks" over the hotline at 5pm to allege that Indian security forces had resorted to unprovoked firing and targeted civilians opposite the Poonch sector on the LoC.

But Lt-Gen Bhatt emphatically dismissed the allegation, stressing that "retaliatory firing" by Indian troops had "only been carried out in response to unprovoked and repeated cease-fire violations by Pakistani troops."

While maintaining that the Indian Army will continue its efforts to ensure peace and tranquility on the borders, it will "continue to take all retaliatory measures and retain the right to punitively respond to any provocative acts of aggression from the Pakistani side," said Lt-Gen Bhatt.

The Indian Army has over the last few months repeatedly told the Pakistan Army to desist from actively abetting cross-border terrorism and infiltration, warning that all misadventures to either target Indian troops or provide covering fire to infiltrating terrorists would be met with retaliatory punitive fire assaults.

India has stressed that the main reason for any collateral damage in the cross-border firings is due to Pakistan army's "unacceptable" support to cross-border terrorism and infiltration as well as its strategy to deploy civilians at its forward posts to gain intelligence and act as guides to the terrorists crossing the LoC.

The Army has recorded over 500 ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the 778-km LoC (BSF mans the 198-km international border in J&K) already this year, marking a new high in recent times. The violations in 2014 and 2015 stood at 153 and 152, respectively, while the tally was 228 last year.