pakistani and Indian military
Pakistani and Indian military
Pakistani and Indian military officials have been exchanging signals in the weeks following the Uri attacks on September 18, 2016. With the frequent use of cryptically phrased words and sentences, these exchanges are important in understanding how a full blown crisis between the two nuclear armed nations was prevented.
No transcript of the exchange of views between the generals of the two military establishments is available. If there were any telephonic conversations during the crisis, those were never revealed to the public or media.
The military leaders appear in their statements mature enough to convey to each other that they were in no mood of escalating the crisis, despite the charged atmosphere generated by the Uri attack and the subsequent surgical strikes reportedly carried out by the Indian army across the Line of Control.
Military statements
Military statements emanating from Islamabad (besides brandishing their military prowess) always ended by stating that the escalation was in nobody’s interest. Similarly, senior officials from the Indian army indicated a desire to not aggravate the crisis: while releasing details of the so-called surgical strikes, they would announce that they have no intention to cross the Line of Control again and had stopped further operations.
There are, however, a number of public statements from both sides containing summarised versions of these exchanges. A common refrain contained in Islamabad’s military statements was that Pakistan was prepared for “every kind of response”, which – in plains words – indicated readiness to use tactical nukes to respond to any military provocation from across the border.
New Delhi and Islamabad
At no point in time was the situation on the verge of getting out of hand. On the surface, there was much jingoism on both the sides. However, behind the scenes, military officials continued to talk to each other. Washington – which in such situations in the past wasted little time in sending top diplomats and intelligence officials to talk to decision makers in New Delhi and Islamabad – continued to express confidence in the fact that military officials in the two countries were in regular contact.
However, relations between India and Pakistan cannot be allowed to be based on such shaky grounds as exchanges between military commanders. There are a multitude of ways in which one can misunderstand or misperceive the other’s intentions. What has worsened the situation is the fact that the Uri attack and alleged surgical strikes have brought the relations between the political leadership of two countries to a breaking point.
political level
This virtual breakdown of relations at the top political level is bound to have an adverse impact on the regional security situation. This remains hidden from the public eye, but its effects on the security situation will become visible in the months and years ahead. As the BJP government will become more vocal and vehement in the public about its desire to isolate Pakistan in the international arena, it will leave little space for Pakistan’s political and military leadership to dismiss the notion that cross-border attacks such as the one on the Uri basecamp and mass casualty attacks such as the one in Mumbai on 2008 are a threat to regional peace and stability. A senior government official told dawn.com that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has asked his national security advisor to remain in touch with his Indian counterpart and share intelligence information with him whenever it is required. This is a strong indication that the Pakistani government already sees cross-border attacks as a threat to regional peace and security.
Hostility and acrimony, however, will make it very difficult for Sharif to publicly agree with India against any future attack, let alone cooperate to investigate such attacks. Secondly, as influential American experts have recently indicated (in reports that are publicly available), Washington’s influence on New Delhi – to convince it not to embark on a military adventure in reaction to a mass casualty attack – has decreased substantially. Together, the two factors could lead to an escalation that no one wants.
Indian government
The Indian government, indeed, is under pressure from the educated, urban middle class in India to respond to the attacks militarily. The views of these sections of society are being championed by a number of extremist groups in India. This line of reasoning has invented a military logic for a military response against Pakistan, having a “stability/instability syndrome” — a term borrowed from Western political theory, invented during the Cold War, to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Captured' Indian pilot thanks Pakistan army
pakistani authorities released a picture, they claimed, is of a captured Indian pilot - after an Indian Air Force plane was shot down in Pakistan's territory.
According to a tweet by Major General Asif Ghafoor, army spokesperson, there is only one pilot under Pakistan Army's custody, who identified himself as Wing Commander Abhi Nandan 'from down South in India'.
In a video released on social media, the officer looks in high spirits with his wounds cleaned and dressed in warm clothes as he sipped on a cup of tea. Nandan - speaking in English - said that he wanted to put this on record that he was being taken care of by the Pakistan army and expected the same gesture meted out to a Pakistani officer by the Indian army.
Comments
Post a Comment