“On 14 February 2019, a suicide terror attack was conducted by a Pak based terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammad, leading to the martyrdom of 40 brave jawans of the CRPF. JeM has been active in Pakistan for the last two decades, and is led by MASOOD AZHAR with its headquarters in Bahawalpur. This organization, which is proscribed by the UN, has been responsible of a series of terrorist attacks including on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 and the Pathankot airbase in January 2016. Information regarding the location of training camps in Pakistan and PoJK has been provided to Pakistan from time to time. Pakistan, however, denies their existence. The existence of such massive training facilities capable of training hundreds of jidhadis could not have functioned without the knowledge of Pakistan authorities.
India has been repeatedly urging Pakistan to take action against the JeM to prevent jihadis from being trained and armed inside Pakistan. Pakistan has taken no concrete actions to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil. Credible intelligence was received that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country, and the fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose. In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary.
In an intelligence led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated.
This facility at Balakot was headed by MAULANA YOUSUF AZHAR (alias USTAD GHOURI), the brother-in-law of MASOOD AZHAR, Chief of JeM. The Government of India is firmly and resolutely committed to taking all necessary measures to fight the menace of terrorism. Hence this non-military preemptive action was specifically targeted at the JeM camp.
The selection of the target was also conditioned by our desire to avoid civilian casualties. The facility is located in thick forest on a hilltop far away from any civilian presence. As the strike has taken place only a short while ago, we are awaiting further details. The Government of Pakistan had made a solemn commitment in January 2004 not to allow its soil or territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India.
We expect that Pakistan lives up to its public commitment and takes follow up actions to dismantle all JeM and other camps and hold the terrorists accountable for the actions.”
source: Text of foreign secretary’s statement on air strike
Aforementioned, one can find the full text of the statement read out by Mr. Vijay Gokhale, Foreign Secretary of India, on 26 February 2019, on India's use of air power in retaliation against the suicide bombing carried out against Indian Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) at Pulwama in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February 2019. The use of air power by India to target terrorist training camps/infrastructure deep inside Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJ&K) and Pakistan, was a marked departure from the approach taken by the previous regime to similar strikes on the Indian State at Mumbai, Ahmedabad and elsewhere. In the process, it also laid bare the bluff of the Pakistani State of threatening a war that could turn nuclear, if India was to use air power to strike into Pakistan. (Mr. Ahmad Mukhtar Chaudhry, Pakistan Defence Minister, Monday, 22 December 2008).
This bold new approach quickly brought to fore the use of military means as tools to achieve politico-diplomatic objectives by Prime Minister Modi, which had thus far, remained elusive while following the traditional approach followed by successive Indian governments as evident with lack of any progress on Mumbai attacks, Pathankot and Gurdaspur provocations. The Surgical Strike by Indian Special Forces authorized by the Government of India in September 2016, while not exactly the first of it's kind, became the first instance wherein the political dispensation at power took an overt ownership of the act, in order to impose certain 'Politico-Diplomatic Costs' on Pakistan, in addition to the limited military costs on the outfit and their supporters.
This incident had it's fair share of critics and sceptics, primarily because the inherent nature of military operations undertaken by Indian Military Forces anywhere in India and beyond, forbids release of details. That it quickly convoluted into a Political slug fest, was but a given, as the response of the Indian public, tired by decades of tolerating an assault on it's security, overwhelmingly fell in behind the Prime Minister and the opposition was left floundering. Sensing a dissonance in the Indian Political Scene, Pakistan and it's agents, quickly got o work to create a narrative intended to create an impression of growing intolerance (fueled by certain sections seeking political advantage in garb of Hyper nationalism), antipathy of one section towards another (in order to target the Sikhs, North Eastern states and Tamils) and a general culture of questioning the Government of the day over every statement, thereby lending credence to a perception that the Government is out to mislead/misdirect the common Indian.
As India found itself at dissonance with itself, the primary aim of carrying out a military strike - imposing costs on Pakistan, was quickly lost as an opportunity to exploit the same was lost in the political slugfest being played out in the Parliament, Assemblies and Social Media/media. The zenith of the farce was achieved with the armed forces themselves coming under a cloud as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Mr. Kejriwal and Congress Party (INC) leaders Rahul Gandhi, Digvijaya Singh and Trinamool Congress (TC) leader Mamata Bannerjee, sought to question the veracity of the strikes itself. Soon, the Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM, ADC was found to have been accused by AAP Leader Mr. HS Phoolka of being complicit in orchestrating a bomb blast in Amritsar. ("Inadvertent Comment, Regret It": AAP Leader HS Phoolka On Army Chief, November 19, 2018 12:00 IST).
Fast forward to 14 February 2019. Sensing an opportunity as the country heads into General Elections in April-May 2019, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and it's handlers, Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, carried out what is now clearly the first suicide attack in Kashmir Valley since early 2000s, targeting an Administrative convoy of CRPF at Pulwama. In the aftermath of the strike, as the Government of India considered various options, the use of Air Power remained the most obvious taking into consideration the inclement weather conditions in the State of Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan Army's likelihood of being postured to target another Indian Special Forces attempt, and the inherent need to graduate the scale of 'costs' upwards for Pakistan.
The use of Air Power was designed to achieve precisely this. As Government of India claimed the strike, Pakistan was found tying itself up in knots as it hurried to deny multiple strikes within the territories controlled by it, including as deep as at Balakote in the Pakistani State of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), and then being under tremendous pressure to react to Indian 'aggression'. Pakistan quickly mobilized it's forces, in the process shifting quite a chunk of troops involved in anti-terror operations in Baluchistan and territories of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and parts of KPK. The use of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to retaliate against what essentially was an anti-terror operation claimed by the Government of India, by striking Indian military targets and downing an IAF Mi-21 Bison, is essentially an Act of War and overt support of a State to terrorists and their infrastructure. By all diplomatic, political and military logic, the act of the Government of Pakistan, it's defence forces and it's agencies, is an act of war carried out with an intent to protect, nurture and defend the terrorists on their soil.
With these actions, the subsequent actions of the Government of India, broke the basic principle that is essential in use of military power to achieve definitive political objectives - imposition of costs that break the will of the enemy to fight.
There is no ambiguity that the State of Pakistan, it's citizens and it's defence/intelligence forces, remain complicit in not only the sustenance and nurturing of terrorist organizations but also play an active role as support elements in undertaking terror activities that take lives of Indian citizens, it's security forces and Indian interests. That the cadre is derived from the very same society, has been derived for over three decades now, does not absolve the common Pakistani citizen of his/her complicity in acts of terror within the State of India.
By failing to impose costs on this vital, thriving and belligerent support base, the Government of India will fail yet again to achieve it's overall objective and India will continue to bleed. Any other claims of 'ghar mein ghuske maarenge' or 'naya bharat hai, ghusega bhi aur maarega bhi' are mere slogans of no standing and import, if costs and pain that every Indian feels for every act of terror, is not exponentially imposed on this support base.
How the Government choses to impose this cost on the support base of terror that remains the Pakistani society as a whole, remains to be seen.
Till then, let us not celebrate any victory or appearance of any victory. We have merely taken the first step.
India has been repeatedly urging Pakistan to take action against the JeM to prevent jihadis from being trained and armed inside Pakistan. Pakistan has taken no concrete actions to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil. Credible intelligence was received that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country, and the fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose. In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary.
In an intelligence led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated.
This facility at Balakot was headed by MAULANA YOUSUF AZHAR (alias USTAD GHOURI), the brother-in-law of MASOOD AZHAR, Chief of JeM. The Government of India is firmly and resolutely committed to taking all necessary measures to fight the menace of terrorism. Hence this non-military preemptive action was specifically targeted at the JeM camp.
The selection of the target was also conditioned by our desire to avoid civilian casualties. The facility is located in thick forest on a hilltop far away from any civilian presence. As the strike has taken place only a short while ago, we are awaiting further details. The Government of Pakistan had made a solemn commitment in January 2004 not to allow its soil or territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India.
We expect that Pakistan lives up to its public commitment and takes follow up actions to dismantle all JeM and other camps and hold the terrorists accountable for the actions.”
source: Text of foreign secretary’s statement on air strike
Aforementioned, one can find the full text of the statement read out by Mr. Vijay Gokhale, Foreign Secretary of India, on 26 February 2019, on India's use of air power in retaliation against the suicide bombing carried out against Indian Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) at Pulwama in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February 2019. The use of air power by India to target terrorist training camps/infrastructure deep inside Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJ&K) and Pakistan, was a marked departure from the approach taken by the previous regime to similar strikes on the Indian State at Mumbai, Ahmedabad and elsewhere. In the process, it also laid bare the bluff of the Pakistani State of threatening a war that could turn nuclear, if India was to use air power to strike into Pakistan. (Mr. Ahmad Mukhtar Chaudhry, Pakistan Defence Minister, Monday, 22 December 2008).
This bold new approach quickly brought to fore the use of military means as tools to achieve politico-diplomatic objectives by Prime Minister Modi, which had thus far, remained elusive while following the traditional approach followed by successive Indian governments as evident with lack of any progress on Mumbai attacks, Pathankot and Gurdaspur provocations. The Surgical Strike by Indian Special Forces authorized by the Government of India in September 2016, while not exactly the first of it's kind, became the first instance wherein the political dispensation at power took an overt ownership of the act, in order to impose certain 'Politico-Diplomatic Costs' on Pakistan, in addition to the limited military costs on the outfit and their supporters.
This incident had it's fair share of critics and sceptics, primarily because the inherent nature of military operations undertaken by Indian Military Forces anywhere in India and beyond, forbids release of details. That it quickly convoluted into a Political slug fest, was but a given, as the response of the Indian public, tired by decades of tolerating an assault on it's security, overwhelmingly fell in behind the Prime Minister and the opposition was left floundering. Sensing a dissonance in the Indian Political Scene, Pakistan and it's agents, quickly got o work to create a narrative intended to create an impression of growing intolerance (fueled by certain sections seeking political advantage in garb of Hyper nationalism), antipathy of one section towards another (in order to target the Sikhs, North Eastern states and Tamils) and a general culture of questioning the Government of the day over every statement, thereby lending credence to a perception that the Government is out to mislead/misdirect the common Indian.
As India found itself at dissonance with itself, the primary aim of carrying out a military strike - imposing costs on Pakistan, was quickly lost as an opportunity to exploit the same was lost in the political slugfest being played out in the Parliament, Assemblies and Social Media/media. The zenith of the farce was achieved with the armed forces themselves coming under a cloud as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Mr. Kejriwal and Congress Party (INC) leaders Rahul Gandhi, Digvijaya Singh and Trinamool Congress (TC) leader Mamata Bannerjee, sought to question the veracity of the strikes itself. Soon, the Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM, ADC was found to have been accused by AAP Leader Mr. HS Phoolka of being complicit in orchestrating a bomb blast in Amritsar. ("Inadvertent Comment, Regret It": AAP Leader HS Phoolka On Army Chief, November 19, 2018 12:00 IST).
Fast forward to 14 February 2019. Sensing an opportunity as the country heads into General Elections in April-May 2019, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and it's handlers, Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, carried out what is now clearly the first suicide attack in Kashmir Valley since early 2000s, targeting an Administrative convoy of CRPF at Pulwama. In the aftermath of the strike, as the Government of India considered various options, the use of Air Power remained the most obvious taking into consideration the inclement weather conditions in the State of Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan Army's likelihood of being postured to target another Indian Special Forces attempt, and the inherent need to graduate the scale of 'costs' upwards for Pakistan.
The use of Air Power was designed to achieve precisely this. As Government of India claimed the strike, Pakistan was found tying itself up in knots as it hurried to deny multiple strikes within the territories controlled by it, including as deep as at Balakote in the Pakistani State of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), and then being under tremendous pressure to react to Indian 'aggression'. Pakistan quickly mobilized it's forces, in the process shifting quite a chunk of troops involved in anti-terror operations in Baluchistan and territories of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and parts of KPK. The use of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to retaliate against what essentially was an anti-terror operation claimed by the Government of India, by striking Indian military targets and downing an IAF Mi-21 Bison, is essentially an Act of War and overt support of a State to terrorists and their infrastructure. By all diplomatic, political and military logic, the act of the Government of Pakistan, it's defence forces and it's agencies, is an act of war carried out with an intent to protect, nurture and defend the terrorists on their soil.
With these actions, the subsequent actions of the Government of India, broke the basic principle that is essential in use of military power to achieve definitive political objectives - imposition of costs that break the will of the enemy to fight.
There is no ambiguity that the State of Pakistan, it's citizens and it's defence/intelligence forces, remain complicit in not only the sustenance and nurturing of terrorist organizations but also play an active role as support elements in undertaking terror activities that take lives of Indian citizens, it's security forces and Indian interests. That the cadre is derived from the very same society, has been derived for over three decades now, does not absolve the common Pakistani citizen of his/her complicity in acts of terror within the State of India.
By failing to impose costs on this vital, thriving and belligerent support base, the Government of India will fail yet again to achieve it's overall objective and India will continue to bleed. Any other claims of 'ghar mein ghuske maarenge' or 'naya bharat hai, ghusega bhi aur maarega bhi' are mere slogans of no standing and import, if costs and pain that every Indian feels for every act of terror, is not exponentially imposed on this support base.
How the Government choses to impose this cost on the support base of terror that remains the Pakistani society as a whole, remains to be seen.
Till then, let us not celebrate any victory or appearance of any victory. We have merely taken the first step.
