Asia: The Decrease-Fire

Perhaps it should be called a decrease-fire. Whatever the word, India and Pakistan last week demonstrated the flexibility of their own, ten-day-old ceasefire. From Kashmir to the Sind, patrols probed at one another, hoping to grab more high ground before the United Nations truce could be properly policed. During the course of the week, India charged Pakistan with 42 violations; Pakistan charged India with 26.

The most blatant:

> At Sundra, a caravansary in the salt wastes of the Thar, Pakistani irregulars were doing their laundry one morning when an Indian 3-in. mortar shell slammed into their midst. Killed: a brown goat. The Paks — camel-riding Indus Rangers and bearded Hur rifle men — ducked behind mud walls and blazed back in the best Gunga Din fashion. A strafing run by Indian Vampire jets failed to dislodge the Pakistanis —indeed, they reported, did not even disturb the vultures circling overhead.

> At Fazilka, a farm town south of Lahore, a 100-man Indian company politely asked a band of 1,000 Pakistani marauders to withdraw. At that, claimed the outraged Indians, the Pakistanis opened fire with their rifles. Out numbered 10 to 1, the Indians had no choice but to fight. They killed 59 Paks, while losing only eleven men themselves.

The stories were the same all along the frontier between the two armies. Only the name of the violator was changed, depending on which side was making the complaint. With only 41 U.N. observers on hand to patrol nearly 1,000 miles of contested border, it was impossible to tell who was the true aggressor. Clearly, both India and Pakistan had a lot to gain — and little to lose — by trying to grab more territory while they could. Old U.N. hands recalled that it took 123 days for the Suez cease fire to really take effect. The Indo-Pakistani cooling-off period was likely to take just as long — or longer.