After
Pulwama: The good, the bad and the ugly
Published : Mar 13, 2019, 2:45 am IST
Updated : Mar 13, 2019, 2:45 am IST
While the February 14 fidayeen attack
on the CRPF convoy elicited a strong response from India which raise its
diplomatic standing, these gains have
been marred by false propaganda from Opposition forces .
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman (extreme right),
accompanied by Group Captain Joy Thomas Kurien, India’s air attache at the high
commission in Islamabad, and Dr Fariha Bugati of the Pakistan foreign office,
prepares to cross the Wagah-Attari border on February 28 on his way home on
being freed from two-day captivity in Pakistan after his MiG-21 Bison fighter
was shot down. (Photo: PTI)
Pakistan’s directors of anti-India terror may never have imagined that
killing over 40 personnel of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) by ramming a
car with 350 kg of explosives into the bus, part of a large security convoy,
they were travelling in on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in Kashmir’s
Pulwama district would spiral into an all-India outburst of anger and a
debilitating air attack on its terrorist bases.
But the February 14 attack had not merely been a heinous one. It had
been yet another covert act of war on the part of the enemy. Claimed by
Pakistan-supported terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), this was the biggest
attack on security personnel in J&K in decades. In 2001, three terrorists
of JeM had attacked the J&K state assembly in Srinagar using a Tata Sumo
loaded with explosives, killing 38 people.
The tally of Pakistani/Pakistan-supported
Kashmiri terrorists killed by Indian Army and security forces in Kashmir Valley
in 2018 — at almost 250 — was high. And a large number of those killed,
including many of its commanders, belonged to JeM. This was why JeM resorted to
using an improvised explosive device (IED) which, with or without a suicide
bomber, is a far more failsafe method of achieving its destruction target.
Over the next few days, the extensive media
coverage of the mortal remains of these unfortunate paramilitary soldiers being
escorted to their respective home destinations and the processions and funeral
ceremonies being spontaneously joined by citizens, many of them shouting
slogans hailing them as martyrs and crying Pakistan murdabad (death to
Pakistan) showed how deeply the attack had impacted the general public.
Television interviews of various next-of-kin of the troops also reflected the
desire for revenge of the people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home
Minister Rajnath Singh, too, expressed that this attack would elicit a strong
response. The Indian government threatened to deny Indus water share to
Pakistan. India’s diplomatic offensive was also put into top gear. While many
nations condemned the attack, efforts were renewed to move the United Nations
Security Council on declaring Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. India revoked
Pakistan’s most favoured nation status. The customs duty on all Pakistani goods
imported to India was raised to 200 percent. The government of India urged the
Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) to put Pakistan on the
blacklist.
Protests bandhs and candlelight marches were
held all across India. The Indian community in the United Kingdom held protests
outside the Pakistan High Commission in London. A delegation of Indian doctors
cancelled their visit to Pakistan for the 13th Association of
Anaesthesiologists Congress, organised by the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation, in Lahore on March 7. Indian broadcaster DSport said it
would no longer broadcast Pakistan Super League cricket matches. The All Indian
Cine Workers Association and Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association
announced a ban on Pakistani actors and artistes in the Indian film industry,
and stated that strong action would be taken on any organisation violating it.
While an important and far-too-long overdue step
of revoking security and some other facilities to Kashmiri separatists has been
taken and some top operators and many lower level liabilities have been
arrested, till all separatists and their entire network are not put behind bars
in states other than J&K, terrorism in and related to Kashmir will not end.
Twelve days after the Pulwama attack, on
February 26, the Indian Air Force (IAF) launched a pre-dawn, precision bombing
strike on terrorist bases in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well
as Muzaffarabad and Chakoti in Pak-occupied Kashmir resulting in destruction of
the three. It is a befitting tribute to not only the dead CRPF personnel but
also those of the Indian Army and state police force killed in various
terrorist attacks in Kashmir.
The BJP reportedly asked party leaders to
maintain restraint in their reactions and project the move not as a revenge for
the Pulwama terror attack but as a pre-emptive strike at terror camps at a time
when JeM was preparing for a series of suicide attacks on Indian soil.
On February 27 morning, India’s air defence
system was on full alert. Noticing a build-up of Pakistan Air Force (PAF)
aircraft on the other side of the Line of Control, additional aircraft
effectively engaged PAF aircraft attempting to attack Indian Army locations.
IAF’s Mirage-2000, Sukhoi-30 and MiG-21 Bison aircraft were involved in the
engagement. PAF aircraft were forced to withdraw in a hurry, which was also
evident from the large distances by which weapons dropped missed their intended
targets. PAF’s F-16s, supplied by the US for use against terrorists in
Pakistan, were used by PAF for multiple launches of the AMRAAM missile. Prompt
action by IAF’s Su-30s in response to PAF’s AMRAAM launch, defeated the
missile, parts of which fell in the area East of Rajouri in J&K, injuring a
civilian on the ground. A detailed report released by IAF and all the Su-30
aircraft engaged in combat landing safely back, nailed Pakistan’s lie of PAF
shooting down a Su-30. This false claim was made by Pakistan to try to cover up
for the loss of its own aircraft downed by the courageous Wing Commander
Abhinandan Varthaman, flying a MIG 21 Bison.
Abhinandan’s ordeal followed. His aircraft was
hit, he bailed out, fell into Pak territory, got roughed up by locals and was
eventually seized by Pak army. A foreign newspaper reported: “A series of
videos were released showing him being beaten by a mob near his crash site and
then interrogated by Pakistani officers while blindfolded and wearing a
bloodied uniform. He gave his name, rank and religion, but when prompted for
more information, calmly replied: “I’m sorry, sir, that’s all I’m supposed to
tell you.” The footage was widely circulated on WhatsApp and social media…”
His repatriation, for which a huge crowd
gathered to greet him on the Indian side of the Indo-Pak border check posts at
Wagah, was delayed many hours without explanation by Pakistani authorities. A
most likely reason for the delay was the large cheering crowd. Before being
released after 9 p.m. he was made to stand short of the border check post gate
on the Pakistani side for quite a while with the Indian Air Attache, Group
Captain Joy Thomas Kurien, and Dr Fariha Bugati, a Pakistan Foreign Service
official. Dressed in “civvies”, he stood erect and walked steadily, belying his
injured condition. Following a meeting with his family, he was taken for a
procedural medical check-up to Army Hospital, Delhi Cantonment, where he is
still admitted for treatment of compression of the spine and injury to his
ribs. The “Abhinandan moustache” has become a hit with the country’s youth.
The loss of the CRPF bravehearts has thus had a
range of fallouts—from the good and the bad to the ugly.
Under the good category are reactions of India’s
public, the current government’s actions mentioned and the responses of many
countries. The US condemned the attack, assuring that it would work with India
on counter-terrorism efforts and urged Pakistan to stop sheltering terrorists,
to cooperate with the investigation and punish those responsible. It also
prevailed upon China on blacklisting Azhar. Bangladesh, Bhutan, France,
Hungary, Israel, Maldives, Nepal, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkey and the
United Arab Emirates condemned the attack, as did the United Nations
Secretary-General. Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met with India’s
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and referring to both the 2019 Pulwama
attack and the 2019 Khash-Zahedan suicide bombing, stated that Iran and India
would work together to prevent future attacks. Pakistan’s efforts to fool the
world by conducting foreign media to a site well away from the building
accurately targeted by IAF failed miserably, after getting exposed by satellite
photos and advertisement photos by the makers of the Israeli-developed
SPICE-2000 (Smart, Precise Impact, Cost Effective) bombs used by IAF on the JeM
centre’s building in Balakot.
The bad fallouts of the attack include Pakistan
stepping up ceasefire violations and terrorist attacks in Kashmir. While it can
only be hoped that Pakistan does not raise the ante so high that war breaks
out, India’s armed forces are taking no chances. Another great danger is
Pakistan’s military leaders’ collective delusion syndrome, which was a major
factor in causing past wars.
The ugly is ironically all Indian. A gang of
Left apologists, spearheaded by the Congress, still smarting from its
debilitating defeat in 2014, has been spreading false propaganda about the
so-called failure of the IAF’s anti-terror strikes, scoring self-goals, singing
the enemy’s tune, and stooping to a new low in terms of electoral politics.
There is no stopping them.
A very recent announcement of three strikes by
none other than the home minister has indeed come as a surprise. Will there be
more?
The
writer, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New
Delhi
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