SRINAGAR – The Indian Army is opposed to a ceasefirelink>inoccupied Jammu and Kashmir. The army is worried that something similar toprevious ceasefire act could happen in the event of a ceasefire now.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on May 9 urged the NarendraModi government to take a leaf out of the previous National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) government’s book and declare a unilateral ceasefire fromthe holy month of Ramzan in mid-May to the Amarnath Yatra in August.

The Indian Army and national security planners say that the so-calledNon-Initiation of Combat Operations, or NICO, initiative will only work ifmilitants in Kashmir also simultaneously announce a ceasefire, HindustanTimes has reported.

Army officials also add, just to get things straight, that the use of theterm ceasefire doesn’t make sense because it isn’t as if Indian andPakistani armies are fighting a war in Kashmir.

Senior defence ministry officials say that so far nothing has been put downon paper on even the proposal of such a ceasefire. It is all speculationdriven by the local politics of the state, they added. Still, a senior armyofficer said, on condition of anonymity, that the matter will be discussedafter the Prime Minister returns from Nepal on the basis of a memorandum orall-party resolution sent by the Mehbooba Mufti regime.