Predictably, the Pakistan government has denied any role whatsoever in the dastardly killing of the 28 tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22.
That the Islamic fundamentalist outfit, the “Resistance Front”, which has claimed responsibility for the heinous crime, is an offshoot of the globally banned but Pakistani Army’s well-nurtured terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), does not embarrass Islamabad.
The heinous style of killing the “enemy” resorted to at Pahalgam is nothing new for the Pakistani Army; they have done this many times before.
In fact, the Pakistani Army, along with its fellow travelers al-Qaida and the Taliban, has always given a religious (Islamic) stamp to this style of barbaric execution. No wonder why, in Pahalgam, Hindu tourists were specifically chosen and identified for the killing.
One does not recall a single instance since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 when Pakistan admitted of its involvement in any aggression against India in the beginning – be it the 1948 and 1965 wars, or the semi- war in Kargil in 1999, or the attacks by its state-sponsored terrorists on Indian parliament in 2001 and city of Mumbai in 2008. Its brazen denial this time, too, is thus no different and should be dismissed contemptuously.
Let us remember some hard but unfortunate facts.
On April 18, a Lashkar-e-Taiba commander named Abu Misa called for jihad and bloodshed in Kashmir at a rally attended by several terrorist leaders. The rally was held in Rawalkot’s Khai Gala in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Musa referred to the abrogation of Article 370 and a bid to change the demography of Kashmir to call for attacks in the valley. Incidentally, terrorists killing the tourists at Pahalgam were yelling out how Hindu outsiders like them were changing the demography of Kashmir.
Musa was reported to have declared, “India removed Article 370 and 35A to change the demography. You deployed your 10 lakh army. You wanted to echo ‘Ram Ram’ in Pulwama, Poonch, and Rajouri. Lashkar-e-Taiba accepts your challenge. Modi, inside your closed courtrooms, you passed your orders. But the battlefield belongs to the mujahideen. Try it, Inshallah, we will shower bullets, slit your necks, and honour the sacrifices of our martyrs.”
But then what is most important to note is that Musa was emboldened to say all this because the day before, on April 17, Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir had stated that Kashmir was Islamabad’s “jugular vein”.
Addressing the Overseas Pakistani Convention in Islamabad, General Munir had said: “Our stance is absolutely clear, it was our jugular vein, it will be our jugular vein, we will not forget it. We will not leave our Kashmiri brothers in their heroic struggle.”
In fact, he had not stopped at this and had gone far beyond to say that Pakistanis can never share anything with Hindus of India.
“Our religions are different, our customs are different, our traditions are different, our thoughts are different, our ambitions are different. That was the foundation of the two-nation theory that was laid there. We are two nations, we are not one nation,” Munir had said in one of his strongest statements in the recent past.
Possibly General Munir is the one Army Chief in recent years who has reaffirmed the importance of Islam, or for that matter religion, for Pakistan’s armed forces and talked about “evils” associated with Hindus.
On February 5 (the so-called Kashmir solidarity day), he had highlighted how “Indian atrocities and rising Hindutva extremism only strengthen the resolve of the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination”.
And on November 15, 2024, while addressing a special ceremony of Margalla Dialogue 2024, organised by Islamabad Policy Research Institute, General Munir had slammed “ India’s extremist ideology”, saying that it is posing a threat to minorities abroad, especially in the US, UK, and Canada.
“India’s cruelty and brutality in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is also a continuation of Hindutva ideology and policy”.
When General Munir says such things about India, it is but natural that the likes of LeT will now increasingly involve themselves in fanning terrorism in India, and that too on religious lines.
In that sense, Pakistan’s growing rapprochement, of late, with Bangladesh will lead to anti-Hindu incidents not only in that country but also in the neighbouring state of West Bengal.
Let us not forget that Pakistan is essentially an “Army with a country”.
It is the army that decides Pakistan’s policy towards India. There are three “lakshman rekhas” (limiting lines) that the army has drawn for the civilian prime ministers and presidents.
- They would not interfere in any manner with the organizational and administrative work of the Armed Forces, or, for that matter, do anything that adversely affects the image of the army.
- They would abide by the advice of the army chief on matters of foreign and defense policies, particularly while dealing with India, China, and the United States.
- They would not interfere with the army-controlled nuclear weaponization and missile programs.
With General Munir in such a mood, it is not wrong to assume that now onwards the Pakistan Army will intensify its hitherto paused irregular warfare against India, often taking the help of non-state actors in its territory. And when one talks of the irregular war, it involves terrorist mercenaries, deadly criminals, drug traffickers, and insurgents, etc., in India.
The idea here is to unleash indiscriminate violence (often communal), coercion, and criminal disorder. At the strategic level, such a war, often referred to as a hybrid war, ensures a clear linkage between the regular and irregular forces (the so-called non-state actors); in fact, in many cases, the distinction between them becomes blurred. They are operationally integrated and tactically fused.
In fact, under hybrid war, warfare becomes quite unrestricted. Multiple means – including military and non-military – are used against the enemy. Hacking into websites, targeting financial institutions, terrorism, using the media, and conducting urban warfare are among the methods championed.
There are no rules or norms of war; nothing is forbidden, indeed!
But all this will be done in a manner that will provide the “deep state” in Pakistan with plausible deniability so as to avoid a full-fledged conventional war that Pakistan is certain to lose, General Munir’s bravado to the contrary notwithstanding.
What Can India Do
In the prevailing situation, what should India do? Obviously, the most important requirement is to display national resilience. By orchestrating the massacre in Pahalgam with a particular methodology, General Munir and his proxies want to exacerbate the communal division in India between Hindus and Muslims.
And here, General Munir and his proxies have already had some success, with the Gandhi family, which leads the Congress, India’s principal opposition party, falling easily prey.
Robert Vadra, the family’s son-in law (husband of Priyanka Gandhi) seems to have gladdened the heart of General Munir by saying the Pahalgam terror attack was due to “minorities feel (ing) uncomfortable and trouble” in India because of the ‘Hindutva’ push by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government of Narendra Modi.
“In our country, we see that this government will talk about Hindutva, and the minorities feel uncomfortable and troubled…If you dissect this terrorist act that took place, if they (terrorists) are looking at people’s identity, why are they doing this? Because there’s a divide that has come about in our country with Hindus and Muslims,” he said.
Apparently, Vadra in India is not alone in sharing such a thought. Therefore, the biggest challenge before the Modi government is to disprove the likes of Vadra by ensuring communal amity.
However, at the same time, it is time for India to give back to Pakistan in kind, a la another “Balakot” type operation.
Of course, again, the likes of Vadra may say that “another Balakot” will result in Pakistan launching a full-fledged nuclear war. But then, Pakistanis attacked the Indian Parliament and the financial capital, Mumbai. They have beheaded Indian soldiers. These have not resulted in full-scale wars. So, if Indian Special Forces give something back in kind, that will not necessarily lead to a full-scale war.
In the worst-case scenario, if Pakistan launches a war, it is clear that Pakistan’s ruling establishment can never be free from the clutches of irrational elements who have not learned from the war in 1971 and the Kargil semi-war in 1999.
On the other hand, if Pakistan does not believe in India’s unity, integrity, and stability, one could question India’s official position that “a stable, peaceful, and prosperous Pakistan is in our interest.”
Heaven will not fall if Pakistan disintegrates for the second time after 1971 (formation of Bangladesh).
India has done well in deciding to close the Wagah-Attari Border with immediate effect. It has understandably asked three Pakistani Military attachés in the Pakistan High Commission to leave and downsize the diplomatic staff to give a strong message that Pakistani activities on Indian soil are not acceptable.
Heaven will not fall if Pakistan disintegrates for the second time after 1971 (formation of Bangladesh). In fact, in this regard, it is of great significance that India wants the Indus Water Treaty to remain in abeyance. All told, Indus is Pakistan’s lifeline.
- Author and veteran journalist Prakash Nanda is Chairman of the Editorial Board of the EurAsian Times and has been commenting on politics, foreign policy, and strategic affairs for nearly three decades. He is a former National Fellow of the Indian Council for Historical Research and a recipient of the Seoul Peace Prize Scholarship.
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