And politicians, to divert attention from the very real problems plaguing the cities, make capital of it. Almost in unison, they launch an anti-Pakistan tirade. Rhetoric soon evolves into action. India announces that it will rigorously patrol the border, both to protect Indians and to deal harshly with any Pakistan national who happens to wander into India. The Pakistanis respond with a troop build-up of their own.
Tensions run high all along the border.
About the same time, a long-scheduled Pakistani military exercise gets underway. New Delhi, unaware it is a planned exercise, considers it an act intended to escalate tensions. Like Kewal Singh, Khan also knows ways of slipping across the border and returning safely that neither the Indian nor Pakistani authorities are aware of. But his luck, too, runs out as he encounters an Indian patrol and, like the hapless Kewal Singh did just a month ago, decides to run for it. Witnessing the incident is a Pakistani patrol which opens fire on the Indians.