Malik M. Ashraf<\/p>\n
On January 8th The Times of India published a write-up based on the memoirs of Ajay Bisaria who was Indian ambassador to Pakistan at the time of Pulwama incident and the military confrontation be\u00adtween India and Pakistan that nearly brought the two nu\u00adclear states to the brink of a full-fledged war. Bisaria while describing the details of devel\u00adopments in regards to the cap\u00adture of the Indian fighter pilot Abhi\u00adnandon by Pakistan and his release in his upcoming book titled \u2018Anger Man\u00adagement: The Troubled Diplomatic Re\u00adlations between India and Pakistan\u2019 has made some absurd claims which belie not only logic but also the ground reali\u00adties that prevailed at that time.
\nHe claims that Pakistan released the pilot after two days not on its own as a peace overture but his release was a result of coercive diplomacy by India. It was secured under a threat of esca\u00adlating the war if any harm came to the captured pilot. India had deployed nine missiles aimed at Pakistan. According to him it was conveyed to the Pakistan government through ambassadors of UK and USA in India and Pakistan who impressed upon it how serious India was about the escalation. He maintains that Pakistan not only agreed to release Abhinandan but also promised action on Pulwama dossier prepared by In\u00addia and terrorism. According to him the envoys of US and UK said that Pakistan seemed genuinely spooked by the pros\u00adpect of escalation.
\nBefore dilating on authenticity of the claims or otherwise made by Bisaria I feel it would be pertinent to ascertain the reality of Pulwama incident conse\u00adquent upon which India and Pakistan confronted each other.
\nIt is pertinent to point out that even before the Pulwama attack Pakistan feared some sinister move by the Modi government in view of the ensuing Indi\u00adan elections and had sounded a number of world capitals about it. Pakistan was vindicated when it happened. Pakistan\u2019s claim gained strength from the state\u00adment of the chief of Indian extremist political party Maharashra Navnirman Sena Raj Thackery who called the Indian soldiers killed in the attack as \u2018political victims\u2019 maintaining that truth would be revealed if the country\u2019s National Secu\u00adrity Adviser Ajit Doval was probed. On top of that 21 political parties of India including Congress also held Modi re\u00adsponsible for the situation alleging that he was using the Pulwama tragedy for political gains. It went beyond doubt to prove that Pulwama was stage-managed to reap political advantage.
\nThe revelations that the alleged sui\u00adcide bomber was in the custody of the Indian security forces since 2017 and the reports by the Indian media that Ghazi Abdul Rasheed was the master\u00admind behind the suicide attack, reduced Indian claims to a farce. Ghazi Abdul Ra\u00adsheed was killed in an operation against the militants at the Lal Masjid Islam\u00adabad nearly ten years ago. It was typi\u00adcal of what India had been doing in the wake of similar incidents in the past. It even raised the hoax of surgical strike in the backdrop of the Uri incident.
\nNevertheless Pakistan condemned the attack, rejected the insinuations re\u00adgarding her involvement and offered to cooperate in the investigation if India provided any credible evidence in sup\u00adport of her claims but there was no let up in the tirade against her.
\nSince Modi government had created anti-Pakistan hysteria in the backdrop of Pulwama incident it sent planes to attack an imaginary terrorist training camp at Balakot to assuage the public sentiment. Modi government claimed that the first hit at Balakot had de\u00adstroyed a training camp of Jaish-e-Mo\u00adhammand and killed 350 terrorist. The India media also went berserk in toeing the lead given by the government and even used old videos to corroborate the Indian claims. But those claims were given a lie by the Pakistani as well as in\u00adternational media and the satellite im\u00adages of the place of incident where no traces of any camp were found and no casualty occurred except felling of some trees and the death of an unfortunate crow. Reuter, AP, BBC, New York Times and Washington Post also expressed doubts about Indian claims.
\nAs is evident the entire Indian sto\u00adry was fictitious. India committed a blunder by sending its planes across the border not realizing that Pakistan would not take it lying down. While Indian planes came in the dark of the night, Pakistan retaliated in the broad-day light and in the ensuing dog-fight between the two air forces, Pakistan downed two Indian planes and also captured wing commander Abhinan\u00addan who ejected after his plane was hit. Pakistan sent a loud and clear mes\u00adsage that it was capable to defend itself against any aggression and could give a matching response in any eventual\u00adity. Pakistan clearly had upper hand in the confrontation. The Indian mili\u00adtary leadership was in a state of paral\u00adysis. In spite of having three times big\u00adger Army than Pakistan and terming the 27th events as declaration of war it never dared to attack Pakistan. The su\u00adpremacy of Pakistan was acknowledge by Modi who later told any audience that had India acquired French Rafa\u00adel planes in time the situation would have been different.
\nLogic belies Bisaria\u2019s claim that Pak\u00adistan capitulated in face of the threat conveyed by India for escalating the war and released Abhinandan. Why a nuclear power having demonstrated capability to defend itself would suc\u00adcumb to any threat? The fact is that Pak\u00adistan being a responsible nuclear state was aware of the dangers of conflict be\u00adtween the two nuclear states. It justifi\u00adably made a peace overture to defuse the situation by releasing Abhinandan. The involvement of US, UK and oth\u00ader countries in preventing escalation stemmed from their realization how di\u00adsastrous a clash between the two nucle\u00adar powers could be for both of them, the region and the world at large. The re\u00adlease of Abhinandan was also a reitera\u00adtion of Pakistan\u2019s abiding commitment to the cause of peace and good relations with all neighbours as well as its obli\u00adgations under international law. Pursu\u00adant to that Pakistan made several peace overtures to India without matching reciprocity prior to Pulwama.
\nThe claim that Pakistan also agreed to take action on Pulwama dossier and terrorism also could only be the fig\u00adment of imagination of Bisaria. Paki\u00adstan is against terrorism in all its man\u00adifestations of terrorism and has been in the forefront in the fight against ter\u00adror. It has always rejected Indian propa\u00adganda of Pakistan fomenting terrorism which India probably has been doing as a cover-up for its own state-terror\u00adism. It has been supporting insurgen\u00adcy in Balochistan and acts of terrorism as revealed by Indian spy Kalbhushan Jhadav. Indian RAW in collaboration with Afghan intelligence agency DNS has been sponsoring terrorist attacks in Pakistan. It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan had handed over a dos\u00adsier on Indian terrorism to the UN and other western powers including USA in the aftermath of these incidents. The murder of a Sikh leader in Canada for which the Canadian prime Minister ac\u00adcused Indian government of its involve\u00adment and yet another murder plan of a Sikh leader in USA are a ranting testi\u00admony of Indian state terrorism.
\nThe timing of appearance of this arti\u00adcle is quite ominous as it has been pub\u00adlished before the ensuring elections in India. It reflects typical Indian ploy to manipulate things and nothing else.
\nThe writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malik M. Ashraf On January 8th The Times of India published a write-up based on the memoirs of Ajay Bisaria who was Indian ambassador to Pakistan at the time of Pulwama incident and the military confrontation be\u00adtween India and Pakistan that nearly brought the two nu\u00adclear states to the brink of a full-fledged war. Bisaria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3489],"class_list":{"0":"post-380488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-malik-m-ashraf"},"yoast_head":"\n