Indian Defence Review

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, NSA Ajit Doval, the Chiefs of Army and Air Force, NSG and BSF visited Pathankot Airbase in Punjab

Even though India has not directly named Pakistan responsible for the Pathankot Air base terror attack, for a change Pakistan also has not denied like Mumbai jehadi attack of 2008 that this terror attack was not launched from its soil. Rather it has agreed to investigate the whole issue and bring the culprits to book. However nobody should have the doubt that Pathankot airbase attack on 02 Jan 2016 was planned by Pakistani army and the ISI and executed by their protégé the jehadi organisation Jaish Mohammad.

Pakistani Army and ISI have been nurturing Jaish Mohammad jehadi organisation as also its head honcho Maulana Azhar Mahmud since 1999. Both Jaish Mohammad and Lashkar-e- Toiba are the jehadi strike arm of the Pakistani army and the ISI against India.

Six  religiously brain washed fidayeen jehadis of Jaish Mohammad were made to cross the international border supposedly guarded by the BSF in Bamiyal sector of International border on the night of 30/31 Dec night. This is the same place from where six months back Gurdaspur attack jehadis had entered.

It is most unfortunate that despite we knowing that Pakistani jehadis have crossed over to India and that they may launch a terror attack on India’s biggest air base with great strategic importance at Pathankot we have totally botched up our counter terror operation there. as result this operation just against six jehadis of Pakistani army’s protégé Jaish Muhammad lasted for more than 60 hours .In this counter operation we lost one officer and six other ranks martyred and 18 others ranks wounded. This is very big price to pay.

Jaish Mohammad have been trained, equipped and controlled by the Pakistani army and the ISI along with L-e-T. All these anti India jehadi organisations are the fighting arm of the Pakistani Army. Pakistani Army with their say in everything in Pakistan including politics and their 20 billion dollar business in Pakistan (read book “Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy” by Pakistani Author Ayesha Siddiqa) is a political Army incapable of fighting a war. In all the wars they have fought with India they have lost. So they are using these jehadis since 1988 in proxy war against India with their ultimate aim of breaking India by inflicting thousand cuts on us. Till date we have lost more than 5000 security forces personal and 72000 civilians in this Pakistan projected terror.

Pakistani Army and ISI use these jehadis as cannon fodder and a shield for not fighting themselves. Their other shield is their nuclear warheads under whose umbrella they continue with this mischief. Pakistani armies thought process is that why fight and die when there are others to do their job?

The other block in Pakistan is composed of their Prime Minster Navaz Sharif his political government and the educated people of Pakistan. This block knows that by good relations with India which will lead to trade and economy getting boost in Pakistan, will solve most of the economic problems faced by the bankrupt Pakistan and will benefit the am adami.

However this block is weak and Pakistani army knows that if it allows good relations with India the people will prosper then it will be very difficult to the Army to get recruits for jehad against India so then who will die for them and who will allow their Corps commanders to be known as Crore commanders ? Besides when India is no more a threat which enemy they will create to continue their number one position in the country?

Our Indian political masters must understand that whether it was Manmohan Singh Government who followed for almost one decade the policy of good relations with Pakistan at any cost and we faced large number of terror attacks from across the borders.

We still continued pursuing this policy despite terror attacks from across the border which were launched with impunity by the Pakistani army knowing very well that India will not retaliate. Even the defence minister Anthony had to soften his statement in parliament in the case of beheading of Indian soldier by the Pakistani army Bat team that these jehadis were dressed in Pak Army uniform.

He could not to say that they were actually Pakistani army people. PM Modi on taking over 18 months back pursued a strong policy against Pakistan on the concept that talks and terror cannot go on together. So the Secretary level talks were cancelled in Aug 2014 when Pakistan was not relenting in cooling the cease fire violations.

For the first time Indian Army were give the orders to teach Pakistani Army mischief makers a lesson in a decade. Indian Army did it with aplomb and Pakistan did not know what hit them. When Pakistan tried to hit civilian population of India in Jammu sector hoping that India will not retaliate there they were again proven wrong. When Pakistani casualties mounted they came down to mother earth.

Pakistani Army is mortally afraid of Modi-Doval team and their counter reactions being unpredictable to them, Pakistani Army till now only indulged in border cease fire violations and jehadi infiltrations. However what our political leaders must learn that in all these encounters, from Pakistani side only these jehadis, a good for nothing drug addict lot, gets killed but on Indian side we are losing our trained soldiers. This war is asymmetrical and will hurt us at the long run.

Things would have carried on as usual, but for two incidents which unnerved Pakistani army to launch this terror attack as also terror attacks on Indian consulate in Mazare-Sharif as also in Jalalabad , all in the first week of January to ensure that the bon homie between Modi and Navaz Sharif does not progress any further. In launching these attacks Pakistani army has not tried to hide its identity. All the equipment and weapons of the six jehadis who were killed in pathankot air base attack had Pakistani Army markings.

These jeahdis were very well trained and they were given full knowledge of functioning of an air base at the Pakistani Air base in Chaklala. They had come with specific purpose of destroying maximum of IAF fighter and attack helicopters located in Pathankot Air base. We should not forget that both in 1965 and 1971 indo -pak wars Pakistani air force attacked this Pathankot airbase first which led to war. If these jeahdis would have succeeded in their mission India would have had no option but to retaliate. So one can see the type of risk taken by the Pakistani army.

So what are these two events which upset Pakistani army and ISI so much? These are first sudden Indian decision to give Afghan Army attack helicopters and other lethal arms which till now India was not giving. Also the deterioting relations of Pakistan with Iran and fear in the Pakistani army’s mind that India along with Iran may reactivate the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.

Point to note is that Pakistan does not want India anywhere near Afghanistan since it alone wants to dominate Afghanistan through Taliban. Second the sudden stoppage of Indian PM Narendra Modi in Lahore to wish Pakistani PM Navaz Sharif on his birthday on 25 Dec and then both of them flying to Raiwind in Pakistan for the marriage ceremony of Navaz Sharif neice. The unnerving factor for Pakistan army was the way with open hands Indian PM was received in Pakistan.

Needless to say that there is an ongoing tug of war between the all powerful Pakistani Army and the democratically elected Pakistani government of Nawaz Sharif for supremacy in Pakistan and we are being inadvertently sucked in.

However After this latest betrayal we in India should stop worrying who wants what in Pakistani establishment. We must put an end to this thought that if we side with civilian government one day the public pressure will mount on Pakistani army to see the reason. Let us consider Pakistan as one country and our eternal enemy. Like Israel let us make up our mind that in South Asia Pakistan will never be our friend. Let us forget this pipe dream about friendly relations with Pakistan.

We should have one and only one aim that is to break Pakistan. American Ambassador to India Mr Black Will had advised this to us long time back and has written a paper also on this. Pakistan is so rife with their internal problems between their four provinces –Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan and NW Frontier that all that it needs is a push to break.

There is full scale insurgency on in Baluchistan, 15000 Baluch till date are missing. Incidentally this province is their key province for minerals, largest one and very important for China-Pak economic corridor. So what stops us from supporting their freedom fight on moral grounds as Pakis are supporting the Azadi call in J&K State? In Sind MQM is ever ready for our support and in NW Frontier province Imran khan is calling the shots. So pluck these low hanging fruits and let Pakistan be left with their Punjab province. All this is possible if make up our mind.

However we must improve the capacity and hit capability of our external intelligence agency on the lines of CIA or Mossad. Let it be an inter service organisation to do to PAKISTAN what they are doing to us. Enough is enough.