The Hidden Hand Of Rawalpindi

The Line of Control between India and Pakistan is a treacherous place at the best of times.

- Sandeep Unnithan

But no threat, not the peaks and ravines along its contested 740 km frontier nor enemy bullets, matches what the Indian army calls ‘BAT action’. In these, the Pakistan army’s ‘border action teams’ of SSG commandos conduct night-time infiltrations and lie in ambush for Indian army patrols. On May 1, a suspected BAT team infiltrated over 200 metres across the LoC and killed two members of a patrol, BSF head constable Prem Sagar and naib subedar Paramjit Singh, and then went on to mutilate the bodies, triggering outrage in India.