Beating Retreat to resume at Pakistan border after almost 2-week hiatus, handshake remains suspended

The scaled-down ceremony is being resumed after it was halted on 7 May, when India launched Op Sindoor, and Pakistan retaliated, resulting in escalated tensions at the border.

Following the terror attack in Pahalgam on 22 April, the traditional handshake between personnel of India’s BSF and Pakistan Rangers during the Attari-Wagah border ceremony was suspended | File photo: BSF personnel performing during the Beating Retreat ceremony

New Delhi: Nearly a fortnight after the exercise was suspended as India launched precision strikes against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan under Operation Sindoor, and Pakistan retaliated, the Beating Retreat ceremony is set to resume Tuesday.

The Border Security Force, which mans the Joint Check Post, said that the ceremony will resume across all checkposts—Attari, Hussainiwala, and Sadki.

Asked about the rationale behind the resumption, a BSF officer called the process “inevitable” because of its traditional existence and the situation “normalising” at the border.

“It could not have remained suspended forever. It had to resume some day. It was inevitable considering it’s a traditional function. Things are largely normalising across all border sectors, and subsequently at checkpoints in Punjab, too,” a BSF officer said. 

However, it will continue to be a scaled-down event. “There will be no handshakes and gates will be closed,” an officer said. The traditional handshake between the personnel of India’s BSF & Pakistan Rangers during the border ceremony was suspended in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack on 22 April, in which at least 25 Indian nationals and one foreign national were killed.

On 24 April, BSF’s Punjab frontier had notified the scaling down of the event in line with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s announcement of the Indian government’s diplomatic response to the attack in Pahalgam.

The resumption of the scaled-down ceremony comes after it was suspended starting 7 May, when India launched Operation Sindoor—hitting nine camps belonging to terror outfits, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen, in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan had then retaliated, resulting in escalated tensions for four days along the border.

The Beating Retreat ceremony at Wagah border in Amritsar—the only land entry and exit point between India and Pakistan—is a popular tourist attraction. Similar events are held at Hussainiwala in Punjab’s Ferozepur district and Sadki in Abohar.

(Edited by Mannat Chugh)