The LOC

           Of late there is a lot of discussions on 'violation of ceasefire ' along the LOC. The term LC or LOC itself became popular in the country only after Kargil conflict. Otherwise 'border' was just 'border' as in Wagha Border; known for chest thumping and bizarrely aggressive drill movements by the para military forces of both sides. It was all glamour and ceremonial and no hint of the blood, sweat and gory aspects of soldiering on the frontiers.

           For the uninitiated, LOC itself means line of actual control, meaning there is no formally agreed upon international border but whosoever is actually in control of a particular place continues to be  in control unless physically ejected by some external force. (sounds like newton's first law !). That means there is no "no man's land' and the troops are in eye ball to eye ball contact with machine guns trained on each other. What kind of cease fire can you have in such a situation, at best a 'Mexican stand-off' ?

             Now what triggers a fire-fight ? A trigger happy soldier? Both armies are highly disciplined professional forces and the officers exercise strict fire control. In reality, there are many things that can lead to firing across the LOC.

             Someone had tweeted about troops on LOC enjoying Indo-pak cricket as much as other citizens of the subcontinent. It is true, they do enjoy. But LOC paradigm is quite different from watching a match with your family in the comfort of your home. Here's an anecdote from an old soldier.

        It was a fine day , in Apr 86,  I was sitting in a 'hawa mahal' (a hut type of structure open on all sides and covered on top with thatched roof) in the forward defended locality. the hut had benches and a table made of pine planks , like you would find in 'Hagar the horrible' comic strip. I was listening to the commentary of Australasia Cup Final  India-pakistan  cricket match. Incidentally, those days we could catch only Pakisthani channels of TV and even Radio. Die hard cricket fans would remember Javed Miandad's great effort. The match went to the last ball and as soon as the commentator said '....last ball.. and it is a six", suddenly, the entire front erupted . It was all lit up like a diwali night, with tracer rounds from machine guns. The only difference was that while Diwali rockets were headed skywards every projectile from the Pak side was homing on to my  post.

           There was no damage as troops get used to confining their movements to places covered from direct fire. My CO called me up to ask what was up. It would have been too much of a coincidence if the last ball six had nothing to do with the fireworks. So, I told my CO, "all okay sir, there is no damage,   they are just celebrating a win. "

          Sure enough in 10 - 15 minutes, it was all quite on the western front  and it was "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world"

So fragile was, and is, the cease fire at LOC !