The truth at last?
Myths versus realities —Sheikh Asad Rahman=/i>
The Abbottabad Osama incident where a foreign power has been=able to ingress deep into a military cantonment area has thrown up many qu=stions of the competence of our various military and civilian intelligence=agencies. Conspiracy theories abound
Some years ago I wrote, “In the early formative years Pakistan =eeded the military for defending its borders but now the military needs th= country for its own existence.†I have surprised myself with this pr=phetic analysis because the military is proving my contention as an irrefu=able reality. The other day I heard Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khanâ€=99s talk at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI). He proved=without doubt that India never attacked Pakistan, as we have been given to=believe; instead it was Pakistan that always initiated all four wars. Acco=ding to him the Maharaja had not acceded to India till after Khan Abdul Qa=yum Khan sent the tribal lashkars into Kashmir to force him to accede to P=kistan in 1948. The Maharaja had made representation to the Liaquat Ali go=ernment under the Indian states protocol but was not entertained due to th= preoccupation and deteriorating health of Jinnah. In the environs of Srin=gar the lashkars began a spree of rape, looting and returning to their res=ective areas with truckloads of loot. The Maharaja escaped to Jammu and si=ned the accession papers with India. That was the time the Indian army was=flown into Kashmir.
In 1965 Ayub Khan first tested our military capability in the Rann of K=tch, a short limited skirmish over the Sir Creek unmarked border even toda=. According to Asghar Khan, he retired from the Air Force in August 1965 a=d was appointed Chairman PIA. On reading in the newspaper that our tanks h=d entered the Chamb-Jaurian area of Jammu he immediately went to Ayub and =sked him if Pakistan was going to war over Kashmir and did he realise that=the Indians would react and attack in Punjab? Ayub replied that the foreig= ministry (Zulfikar Bhutto) had assured him that the Indians would not. On=September 3, Asghar Khan visited the Ops room at Air Headquarters and foun= officers running this way and that and knew that the war was about to sta=t across the Punjab border. I personally remember that the Indian advance =econ jeeps turned back from the Engineering University, Lahore, thinking t=at the lack of resistance was a trap on the morning of September 6. Little=did they realise that the Pakistan Army was not even deployed as a defensi=e measure but sleeping in their barracks! The only resistance they faced w=s from a Rangers company deployed along the BRB canal, which held up the I=dian attack till the army woke up and came to its rescue.
The 1971 war was also instigated by Pakistan when the military establis=ment in power at the time did not hand over power to the Awami League of S=eikh Mujib, while attacking the people of East Pakistan on their agitation=against this injustice. It is alleged that three million people were kille=, thousands of women raped and even babies brutally murdered. The Indian a=my was invited by the Awami League to save them from the genocide being pe=petrated by the Pakistan Army. Instead of learning some basic political an= strategic lessons from the infamous defeat and surrender of 90,000 Pakist=ni troops, the Pakistani military strategists seem to have only hardened t=eir India enemy mindset. In the Kargil episode after suffering another def=at, bodies of the Light Infantry Regiment based in Gilgit were not acknowl=dged as Pakistani COAS (Musharraf) claimed that these were Kashmiri guerri=la fighters and not Pakistani soldiers. More soldiers sacrificed at the al=ar of the top brass’s political ambitions.
The 1948, 58, 62-68, 73-77 and the ongoing wars, extrajudicial murders =n Balochistan can only be described as colonial repression by military con=uest. Comparisons continue to be made between the East Pakistan (Banglades=) conflict and the 63-year-old conflict in Balochistan. The genocide in Ea=t Pakistan was a concentrated campaign as it was against high concentratio=s of population centres and geographically confined, while in Balochistan =he population is small and scattered over a vast barren, mountainous and d=sert area, thereby dictating different tactics to achieve the same ends, a=gradual genocide of the Baloch.
One always thought that the military academies who receive recruits wit= basic intermediate qualifications impart graduate education, a BA degree =n graduation, meaning all the BA subjects, military history, political, so=ial sciences, economics, languages, geography and other relevant subjects =or professional soldiers. The recently appointed commandant at the Kakul A=ademy has changed the syllabus in a very interesting manner. He has in his=wisdom stopped the teaching of political and social sciences and introduce= Management Sciences for BBA and MBA to develop the future military office=s into professional managers. Good idea, as the rapidly expanding military=industrial and commercial empire will need managers and what better than t= have them from their own ranks instead of hiring civilians.
The Abbottabad Osama incident where a foreign power has been able to in=ress deep into a military cantonment area has thrown up many questions of =he competence of our various military and civilian intelligence agencies. =onspiracy theories abound. The most plausible and somewhat verified from s=urces and residents close to the incident area seems to confirm the collus=on theory. It is reported that an incident took place in Haripur some five=to six years ago where ostensibly an Egyptian family of three women, a num=er of children and one or two men were involved in an altercation with pol=ce officials including shots being fired. An FIR was registered against th=m under section 302, etc, but within a few days was changed to some minor =ffences. The case was quickly decided with some financial penalties. The f=mily was then moved to Abbottabad.
Neighbouring residents report that the Kakul Academy office lights were=on till very late that night. When the choppers arrived and shooting start=d, many of them climbed their roofs and observed everything. The Pakistan =rmy arrived within three to five minutes and started pushing people into t=eir homes. The choppers dropped the hit squads and flew to the Baloch Regi=ent grounds, waiting there to be called. It was in the attempt to pick up =he squads that one of them malfunctioned and crashed. As soon as a relief =hopper arrived to pick up the squad, which had remained behind to demolish=the crashed chopper, and left, the Pakistan Army contingent moved in and s=cured the compound.
In the light of the tragic death of Saleem Shahzad for revealing infilt=ation of terrorists into the ranks of naval and military institutions, the=story of Abbottabad makes more sense. The US was confident that Osama was =here and put pressure on GHQ to cooperate or else face the consequences. G=Q, fearing a backlash from the TTP and al Qaeda, decided to collude but ma=e it clear that they would deny knowledge. Again they miscalculated as the=backlash came in the shape of the Mehran base, FC cadets and other attacks= Myths and reality do not mix
Some years ago I wrote, “In the early formative years Pakistan =eeded the military for defending its borders but now the military needs th= country for its own existence.†I have surprised myself with this pr=phetic analysis because the military is proving my contention as an irrefu=able reality. The other day I heard Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khanâ€=99s talk at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI). He proved=without doubt that India never attacked Pakistan, as we have been given to=believe; instead it was Pakistan that always initiated all four wars. Acco=ding to him the Maharaja had not acceded to India till after Khan Abdul Qa=yum Khan sent the tribal lashkars into Kashmir to force him to accede to P=kistan in 1948. The Maharaja had made representation to the Liaquat Ali go=ernment under the Indian states protocol but was not entertained due to th= preoccupation and deteriorating health of Jinnah. In the environs of Srin=gar the lashkars began a spree of rape, looting and returning to their res=ective areas with truckloads of loot. The Maharaja escaped to Jammu and si=ned the accession papers with India. That was the time the Indian army was=flown into Kashmir.
In 1965 Ayub Khan first tested our military capability in the Rann of K=tch, a short limited skirmish over the Sir Creek unmarked border even toda=. According to Asghar Khan, he retired from the Air Force in August 1965 a=d was appointed Chairman PIA. On reading in the newspaper that our tanks h=d entered the Chamb-Jaurian area of Jammu he immediately went to Ayub and =sked him if Pakistan was going to war over Kashmir and did he realise that=the Indians would react and attack in Punjab? Ayub replied that the foreig= ministry (Zulfikar Bhutto) had assured him that the Indians would not. On=September 3, Asghar Khan visited the Ops room at Air Headquarters and foun= officers running this way and that and knew that the war was about to sta=t across the Punjab border. I personally remember that the Indian advance =econ jeeps turned back from the Engineering University, Lahore, thinking t=at the lack of resistance was a trap on the morning of September 6. Little=did they realise that the Pakistan Army was not even deployed as a defensi=e measure but sleeping in their barracks! The only resistance they faced w=s from a Rangers company deployed along the BRB canal, which held up the I=dian attack till the army woke up and came to its rescue.
The 1971 war was also instigated by Pakistan when the military establis=ment in power at the time did not hand over power to the Awami League of S=eikh Mujib, while attacking the people of East Pakistan on their agitation=against this injustice. It is alleged that three million people were kille=, thousands of women raped and even babies brutally murdered. The Indian a=my was invited by the Awami League to save them from the genocide being pe=petrated by the Pakistan Army. Instead of learning some basic political an= strategic lessons from the infamous defeat and surrender of 90,000 Pakist=ni troops, the Pakistani military strategists seem to have only hardened t=eir India enemy mindset. In the Kargil episode after suffering another def=at, bodies of the Light Infantry Regiment based in Gilgit were not acknowl=dged as Pakistani COAS (Musharraf) claimed that these were Kashmiri guerri=la fighters and not Pakistani soldiers. More soldiers sacrificed at the al=ar of the top brass’s political ambitions.
The 1948, 58, 62-68, 73-77 and the ongoing wars, extrajudicial murders =n Balochistan can only be described as colonial repression by military con=uest. Comparisons continue to be made between the East Pakistan (Banglades=) conflict and the 63-year-old conflict in Balochistan. The genocide in Ea=t Pakistan was a concentrated campaign as it was against high concentratio=s of population centres and geographically confined, while in Balochistan =he population is small and scattered over a vast barren, mountainous and d=sert area, thereby dictating different tactics to achieve the same ends, a=gradual genocide of the Baloch.
One always thought that the military academies who receive recruits wit= basic intermediate qualifications impart graduate education, a BA degree =n graduation, meaning all the BA subjects, military history, political, so=ial sciences, economics, languages, geography and other relevant subjects =or professional soldiers. The recently appointed commandant at the Kakul A=ademy has changed the syllabus in a very interesting manner. He has in his=wisdom stopped the teaching of political and social sciences and introduce= Management Sciences for BBA and MBA to develop the future military office=s into professional managers. Good idea, as the rapidly expanding military=industrial and commercial empire will need managers and what better than t= have them from their own ranks instead of hiring civilians.
The Abbottabad Osama incident where a foreign power has been able to in=ress deep into a military cantonment area has thrown up many questions of =he competence of our various military and civilian intelligence agencies. =onspiracy theories abound. The most plausible and somewhat verified from s=urces and residents close to the incident area seems to confirm the collus=on theory. It is reported that an incident took place in Haripur some five=to six years ago where ostensibly an Egyptian family of three women, a num=er of children and one or two men were involved in an altercation with pol=ce officials including shots being fired. An FIR was registered against th=m under section 302, etc, but within a few days was changed to some minor =ffences. The case was quickly decided with some financial penalties. The f=mily was then moved to Abbottabad.
Neighbouring residents report that the Kakul Academy office lights were=on till very late that night. When the choppers arrived and shooting start=d, many of them climbed their roofs and observed everything. The Pakistan =rmy arrived within three to five minutes and started pushing people into t=eir homes. The choppers dropped the hit squads and flew to the Baloch Regi=ent grounds, waiting there to be called. It was in the attempt to pick up =he squads that one of them malfunctioned and crashed. As soon as a relief =hopper arrived to pick up the squad, which had remained behind to demolish=the crashed chopper, and left, the Pakistan Army contingent moved in and s=cured the compound.
In the light of the tragic death of Saleem Shahzad for revealing infilt=ation of terrorists into the ranks of naval and military institutions, the=story of Abbottabad makes more sense. The US was confident that Osama was =here and put pressure on GHQ to cooperate or else face the consequences. G=Q, fearing a backlash from the TTP and al Qaeda, decided to collude but ma=e it clear that they would deny knowledge. Again they miscalculated as the=backlash came in the shape of the Mehran base, FC cadets and other attacks= Myths and reality do not mix
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