NEW DELHI: The five Indian soldiers were "sitting ducks" in the well-planned, military-style ambush by the Pakistan border action team (BAT) on August 6. The soldiers had disregarded standard operating procedures (SOPs) by following the same patrolling pattern for days together, which was being closely tracked from across the line of control (LoC).

Caught totally off-guard while "resting/sleeping" midway during their ill-fated patrol, they were gunned down from close range. They got no chance to even open fire. This is the preliminary finding of an internal Army probe into the cross-border ambush carried out by the Pakistan BAT about 450 metres inside Indian territory in the Poonch sector of J&K on August 6, say sources.

Asked about the findings, the Army on Thursday only said, "The formal court of inquiry is still in progress ... it will establish the exact sequence of events and the lapses." Sources, however, said the preliminary assessment — based on the extensive questioning of the solitary Indian soldier to survive, Sambhaji Kute, and other evidence — had confirmed "the grave tactical errors" by the Indian patrol.

A day after the attack, TOI had reported that the ambush had exposed "tactical lapses" by the Indian patrol, which was "taken unawares", as well as the command and control failure. Similar incidents have occurred in the past also during the changeover of battalions deployed along the LoC, when the unit being posted out has become slightly complacent and the one replacing it is still to become familiar with the area.

The Poonch ambush took place when the 14 Maratha Light Infantry (MLI) was being inducted to replace the 21 Bihar Regiment (BR).

Indian and Pakistan armies have been trading heavy fire with each other across the LoC ever since the incident, which has also pushed the early resumption of the bilateral composite dialogue process into cold storage once again. There have been over 30 ceasefire violations since August 6, bringing the total number to over 85 so far.

Sources said the six Indian soldiers, on the "area domination patrol" in the stretch between the actual LoC and the border fence erected by India slightly inside, had made "no variation in either the timings or routes" of the patrol, which eventually proved to be a grievous error.

Having begun their patrol from the Cheetah Post in the Sarla area of Poonch sector during the night of August 5, the soldiers stopped midway at the unmanned Delta post to rest. While five (four from 21 Bihar, the fifth from 14 MLI) of them rested or slept in the stone shelter, Kute was on sentry duty.

The attack in the early hours of August 6 took place soon after Kute apparently left the spot to relieve himself. "Faced with heavy odds amid firing from different directions, Kute says he could not do anything to intervene ... he was in a state of shock," said the source.

Defence minister AK Antony, in his revised statement in Parliament on August 8, had held that it was "now clear that the specialist troops of Pakistan army were involved" in the cross-border raid. "Nothing happens from Pakistan’s side of the LoC without support, assistance, facilitation and often, direct involvement of the Pakistan army," he had said.

