Why didn't India complain about LoC attack earlier, asks Pak envoy

Pakistan’s high commissioner to India Salman Bashir said that India’s decision to blame the Pakistan Army for the attack on its troops along the Line of Control, that left five dead, seemed like there was an ‘afterthought’ involved.

He pointed to the fact that when the two Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of both armies spoke to each other on 6 August, the day of the incident, the issue was not raised.

“Our two DGMOs have a hotline. On the morning of 6 August, there was a hotline conversation between the DGMO of the two sides and I am told that the Indian side did not mention any violation of the LoC at that time,"  Pakistan High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir  said while speaking to Karan Thapar on his show ‘Devil’s Advocate’ on  CNN-IBN.

“So, it seems to me that a lot constructions are being put on the incident. As I have said, I am not able to put specifics of it,” he said.

Five Indian soldiers were killed by the Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

On being asked if he was drawing the conclusion that Pakistani militants, independent of the army, were involved in the LoC violation, he said, “I would not say that this is the conclusion I am drawing but it is very evident from the way things have happened in terms of the statements, that there is what I say an afterthought, that is involved.”

The high commissioner’s statement comes after Indian Defence Minister AK Antony first made a statement in Parliament that persons ‘dressed’ in Pakistan Army fatigues were involved in the attack. After uproar over the statement, he later modified it to blame the Pakistan Army and the Indian government also lodged a protest with the Pakistani envoy in India over the incident.