JOIN USThe Pakistan army has created a number of rogue teams — a mix of its regular Special Services Group commandos and hardened terrorists — to carry out dastardly acts like mutilation of enemy soldiers after they are killed.
These teams act under instructions from the military brass in Islamabad when it wants to rev up tension along the border with acts of brutality, Indian security officials said. These “killer gangs” operate under the banner of what Pakistani military calls Border Action Teams or BAT.
They seek to dominate through surreptitious raids along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. These men are supposed to be well-trained in guerrilla tactics. Hard core Islamist terrorists are essentially roped in for two reasons: for carrying out brutalities and, in case of capture at the Indians’ hand, they can easily be disowned as “non-state actors”.
According to Indian officials, one such team was involved in the mutilation of the bodies of head constable Prem Sagar of 200th Battalion of the BSF and Naib Subedar Paramjeet Singh of 22 Sikh Infantry of the army on Monday.
The Pakistan Army, like in previous instances, has stoutly denied any involvement.
‘Attempt to divert’
“Allegations of mutilation are an Indian attempt to divert the attention of the world from the situation within the (India-held Kashmir) Valley,”according to a statement by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan Army’s media affairs wing.
As the director generals, military operations, of both the countries spoke on hotline on Tuesday, the Pakistani commander told his Indian counterpart that there had been no ceasefire violation or crossing of the LoC by Pakistani troops from the Pakistani side of the border, and hence “the mutilation of the bodies of Indian soldiers is not possible.”
But Indian officials have pointed out that it’s not the first time that such a ghastly incident has happened or the Pakistan Army has taken recourse to outright denials. During the 1999 Kargil war, the infamous incident of the killing of Captain Sourabh Kalia and his troops hit the headlines.
Captain Kalia was held as a prisoner of war by Pakistan. He and five other soldiers, who were part of a patrolling team, were tortured brutally and his badly mutilated body was handed over to India.