An Ungentlemanly Field Marshal!

It would appear Field Marshal Asim Munir, the Chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan, has decided to continue to remain and act in a hysterical mode trying to speak irrationally with extreme  provocations using language whose tenor is marked with war frenzy and non stop spewing of venom. On October 18, Munir while addressing the cadets of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul, Abbottabad, cautioned India with an aggressive tenor that Pakistan would respond much beyond the expectations of the initiators of any war obviously insinuating India further saying that India should settle core issues as Pakistan would never be intimidated or coerced by India’s rhetoric and shall respond with exceeding proportions to even a minor provocation without any qualms . He further cautioned that the onus of escalating tension one that may, ultimately bear catastrophic consequences for the entire region and the responsibility will be squarely on India.

Here, we need to take into account the audience to whom Munir spoke.  The listeners  were very young army officers who are bound to be indoctrinated by such anti-India hate speech. Hence, the next generation of Pakistan officers will also nurture such offensive thoughts about India thus minimizing any chance of peace in the future. This is the second time in two months Munir warned India with such a threatening  tone. First in Tampa in August where after attending the farewell of the Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander, Munir had said that Pakistan being a nuclear nation, in case of a war, if we think we are going down, we will take half the world down with us. He was addressing a section of the Pakistani diaspora. It may be recalled that Munir has made three official trips to the US in recent times – the first was in June when he met President Donald Trump, weeks after Operation Sindoor; the second was in August for the retirement ceremony of the US CENTCOM Commander; and the third was in September when he met Trump again at the White House, this time with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif whose was there to attend the UN General Assembly session.  

More than coincidentally, Pahalgam terror incident claiming 26 innocent lives occurred on April 22 i.e. six days after Munir spoke to a gathering of Non Resident  Pakistanis (April 16) in Islamabad in the presence of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.  His intelligence arm and the infamous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), well known for its destructive activities with a string of home grown and home trained terror outfits, was appropriated for such an act and airing repeated threats through multiple channels.   Now, reacting to such rabid remarks recently by Munir (October 18), former Indian Naval Chief, Admiral (Retd) Arun Prakash wrote in a column that the banal, rabble-rousing tenor & toxic, India-baiting content of Munir’s speech is not only inappropriate for a President of Pakistan (PoP), but ill-befits a man in uniform holding an exalted, if self-assumed, rank.

There are several reasons for the continued acidic and vicious language used by Asim Munir which is unbecoming of the senior most Army man in the Pakistan military setup as well as for the de-facto ruler.  Munir seems to be emboldened by the `compliment’  showered by President Trump at his White House lunch as well as in his most recent remarks praising Munir as the most fabulous Field Marshal when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also present on the sidelines of Sharm-al-Shaikh summit in the aftermath of the Gaza “truce” with Israel.  Munir is clearly emboldened by that and his caustic comments directed against India are also due to the fact that he is trying to divert attention from the internal issues adversely affecting Pakistan including domestic terror attacks and most significantly, the skirmishes with Afghanistan.  

Talking about Afghanistan, we see a formal truce signed at Doha a couple of days ago between Pakistan and Afghanistan.  The pact was brokered  principally by Turkiye and Qatar .  Reacting to the deal, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that his country’s fragile ceasefire agreement (October 19) with Afghanistan depends on whether the latter reins in armed groups attacking across their shared border. “Everything hinges on this one clause,” said Asif in an interview with a news agency on October 20, after the two countries reached a ceasefire agreement. The truce followed a week of deadly border clashes including killing of three cricketers from Afghanistan leading to Afghan withdrawal from the series that saw relations plummet to their lowest point since Afghanistan’s Taliban returned to power after the exit of US and NATO troops from the country in August 2021.

It may be recapitulated that the fighting was triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul control fighters from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella of several armed groups commonly known as the Pakistan Taliban, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan. “Anything coming from Afghanistan will be a violation of this agreement,” said Asif, who led the talks with his Afghan counterpart Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob. He said that the written agreement stipulated there would not be any incursions. The minister also alleged that TTP operated “in connivance” with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, an allegation that the latter has denied. Afghanistan accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation and sheltering ISIL (ISIS)-linked fighters to undermine its stability and sovereignty.  It is worth mentioning here that the Pakistan Taliban, which has been waging a war for years against Islamabad in a bid to overthrow the government, has stepped up attacks recently to target Pakistan’s military. The next round of talks is scheduled to be held in Istanbul on October 25 to evolve a mechanism on how to enforce the agreement. Whatever, the peace deal looks frail and without much promise.

Munir’s uncivilized and crass rhetoric targeting India is also to give vent to his frustration over Afghanistan attacks as Pakistan, which is seen as a stronger country, is viewed as a huge humiliation for Pakistan, and more significantly, the recent visit of Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to India sufficiently irked Pakistan where he received overwhelming reception in light of growing bonhomie between India and Afghanistan, as also for India upgrading its diplomatic mission in Kabul. These developments seem unsettling  for Pakistan in general and Munir in particular.  Judging by Munir’s irresponsible diatribes against India, there is every possibility of the Deep State to indulge in sponsoring renewed cross border terrorism targeting Indian security and infrastructural interests. However, India is geared to address these concerns with all its might and fury. 

 
Dr. Shantanu Mukharji is a
retired IPS officer  and former
National Security Advisor
in Mauritius.