SRINAGAR: Urging the leadership of India and Pakistan to intervene and stop the border skirmishes, the Communist Party of India (M) today said hostilities was not in the interest of the region.
“We sought intervention from the leadership of India and Pakistan for making an end to border skirmishes which has created a sense of uncertainty on Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB),” state secretary of the CPI(M) Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said in a statement here this afternoon.
It is in the best interests of people of the region that the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan take bold initiatives for cessation of hostilities that have taken a heavy toll on borders so far, he said.
“We express deep and serious concern over the latest escalation in tension on LoC and International Border,” he said.
The Committee believes that war approach was not in the interests of people of the two neighboring countries.
He said the shelling from the other side of the border must come to an end with an immediate effect. Such an aggressive posturing not only generates fear and panic among the inhabitants of border areas but have the potential to escalate the situation beyond control. He said the inhabitants living near LoC and IB have migrated en masse and their condition is said to be pathetic.
The government must take measures to reach out to these families. The Committee regrets that the increased incidents of ceasefire violations on LoC and IB has unfortunately provided a room to jingoistic voices and war mongers who are hell bent to deteriorate the fragile relations between the two countries.
Ceasefire agreement reached between the two countries in 2003 had silenced guns along the border which had made other important initiatives possible including the trade and travel across the LoC. But unfortunately, the latest shelling from across the border has derailed these efforts of formation of better understanding and amity between the two neighboring countries through peace initiatives.
The J&K State Committee CPI (M) firmly believes that for the last couple of years, despite many odds, there was a genuine commitment to better relations among political leadership in both New Delhi and Islamabad even though some sections of the society in both countries were skeptical given the long history of conflict and mutual suspicion.
The tragedy of the fragile relations between these two neighbouring countries is that the painstaking progress at different levels can be overturned in an instant by violence. This for what, it is in the interests of the entire region, that the leadership of both the countries must rise to the occasion and ensure cessation of hostilities across the border.
