New Delhi: The Balakot airstrike and the scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A by the Narendra Modi government are two significant events that will have a lasting imprint on the geopolitics of this region, Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has said in the “Green Book” of his force.
The Green Book 2020, the latest edition published by the Pakistan Army featuring essays by serving officers and others, focuses on the implications of these events from diverse perspectives and dimensions.
The Green Book is published by the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army as an internal publication, which, as a matter of principle, is kept confidential from the public, according to a 2013 report in The News.
Some of the publications are, however, available on the website of Pakistan’s National Defence University.
In its latest edition, a copy of which was accessed by ThePrint, the Pakistani Army chief has singled out the Balakot air strikes and Kashmir losing its special status as the significant events of 2019.
“Year 2019 witnessed two significant events which will have lasting imprint on the geopolitics of this region; first, the unwarranted Balakot Strike by Indian Air Force on 26th February and second, the unilateral annexation of Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir by Mr Modi on 5th August, through abrogation of Article 370 and 35A,” Gen Bajwa has written.
He added that the Balakot strike “was a coercive attempt to carve out space for war under nuclear overhang and enforce compellence” and this was “adroitly denied by Pakistan Air Force the very next day, through a calibrated and proportionate response”.
He said the Indian craving for establishing a “new normal” was “stymied comprehensively”.
On J&K, Gen Bajwa also said Kashmir is a nuclear flash point and “in total disregard to international norms, Mr Modi has not only endangered the immediate neighbourhood, but has also raised the ante for the entire World”.
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Non-state actors’ response could be ‘unpredictable, unrestricted’
Lieutenant General Raza Muhammad Khan (retd), former Corps Commander and former president of National Defence University, Islamabad, has in his essay said non-state actors will emerge again in Kashmir, “whose response could be unpredictable and unrestricted”.
This, he said, could be cataclysmic for Asian peace.
“Post August 5th environment suggests that India with obliteration of Article 370 actually risked a high intensity insurgency in an already volatile state of IOJK (Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir); something India could not have done alone without external backing,” he wrote.
Lt Gen Khan also said Pakistan must warn the US that frequent Indian threats will compel it to shift its forces from its Western borders. That could adversely affect peace in Afghanistan, for which Modi must be held accountable, he added.
The non-state actors refer to terror groups created, financed and supported by the Pakistan Army and its intelligence wing — ISI.
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Calls for information warfare on Kashmir issue
Farzana Shah, a Peshawar-based journalist, has called for taking the “war into non-kinetic domains” — information/cyber warfare, electronic warfare (EW).
In her article in the Green Book, she said there should be a focused goal of extracting authentic information from stakeholders in Kashmir, “most importantly from the general public facing the brutalities of Indian oppressive forces”.
She argued that once information is gathered, the Foreign Office must disseminate it with a proper narrative of the state of Pakistan.
“A single video clip or picture can change the perception of India, which it has built so painstakingly over the years,” Shah has written. “Pakistan needs to keep world attention on IOJK and in order to do that communication links inside the valley must be established. Indian decision of communication blackout in IOJK was not random, but part of the but part of the planning.”
Shah underlined that Pakistan’s response in these two domains will be purely non-kinetic, denying any involvement of arms.
“If executed properly and a local uprising occurs inside IOJK, it will make it extremely difficult for India to keep selling the terrorism card on IOJK,” Shah said. “Burhan Wani (Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist) was a local hero, India could not blame his action on Pakistan. Only a native uprising will be just and politically defendable for Pakistan on international forums. Even such an uprising will need support in the information domain.”
ThePrint had reported on 22 April that heightened terror-related activities are expected in Kashmir this summer and that a new terror proxy has been formed by Pakistan to give an indigenous spin to it.
Senator Mushahid Hussain, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and founding chairman of the Pakistan-China Institute, a non-political and non-governmental think tank devoted to relations with China, quoted author Arundhati Roy.
“For starters, the focus should be on a Pakistani narrative. Indian writer Arundhati Roy’s classic article in The New York Times of August 15, 2019, ‘Silence is the Loudest Sound‘ provides some useful pointers, since it says it all,” he wrote.
In his essay, Lieutenant General Raza Muhammad Khan (retd) also called for a Kashmir fund, which could be used for various activities.
“Among other purposes, the fund must be used for preventing human rights violations in IOJK, informing the Indian masses and liberal intellectuals about the colossal cost in terms of treasure and blood, of enslaving nine million Kashmiris for over 70 years, and exposing the lies of the Indian government on the matter,” he said.
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Dialogue or no dialogue, the confusion remains
Rizwana Karim Abbasi, an associate professor in the Department of International Relations at National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad, made a case for bilateral dialogue between the countries.
She said India and Pakistan in parallel should resume bilateral dialogue and create a common ground to institutionalise restraint regimes in order to control the growing arms race and minimise risks of accidental wars.
“It is vital that the two states implement an early restraint regime to achieve regional strategic stability and peace,” she said.
However, Lt Gen Khan (retd) said Pakistan must make any dialogue with India conditional with the reversal of all “illegal measures”, taken by it in August, and inclusion of third party, preferably UN mediators, in the process.
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Pakistan to survive as a state need to forget the humiliation of defeat and surrender to India in 1971.India also went over and forgot the defeat of 1962 and the pain of losing Aksai Chin to China.Soon, after growing politically, militarily and Economically India will settle the matter with China Bilaterally . Pàkistan should follow suit via a vis Indian Kashmir.There is no point in staking existence of the whole state in quest for a part more.
Pakistan a terrorist country,would be demolished in near future by joint force of Covid 19 hired from its father patron China and Indian force , let your nuclear arsenals remain for your dooms.
What about pak occupied Baluchistan and Gilgit-Baltistan , besides areas illegally ceded to China,has the green book anything to say on this? It’s purely for internal consumption with in Pakistan and has no takers. Nobody,takes any notice, except for perhaps, The Print. This is truly a very investigative and balanced journalism.., expected only from such breed.
Thank you The Print for providing inside information on Pakistan mind. The Pakistani establishment doesn’t seem to have learned anything from their own experience of playing with terrorist in their backyard. In the last game Pakistan Taliban killed only innocent Pakistani s. This time around they will kill establishment.
The Prints real bosses. They can rightfully get a copy.
Pakistan is a proxy war expert country where terrorism is part of proxy war weapon and terrorist are strategic wapeon. Modi gavernment had put pause button for some time, however Pakistan like snake will never miss their poison spread by various propogenda.be careful from neibour like pakistan.jai hind
naam se Mohd hata le bhai
Muje ye book padne h
BJP/RSS India must cease its inhumane treatment of Kashmir. Let the Kashmiri people decide their fate.
Anti national space selling by print to pak propagandha
Isn’t it the same “THE PRINT ” who asked for poofs as our air force had hit some crows and trees in PORKISTAN. When will PRINT start to talk for our country.
Yes the same “The Print” which plays the role of anti natonal activity, even to degrate our Mother land in inernational forums and let leave of Arundhuti Roy like deleterious foreign funded counterfeit intellectuals, so called left liberal, a columnist of their choice, who should not be given any weightage, because a woman is known by the company she keeps.
Please understand The Green Book is a Pakistan Army publication. The authors would have been given a narrative and a theme to dwell upon, which they have dutifully done. The year gone by had two major events that are to set the future agenda of the Indo Pak relations. Indian response to Balakot would certainly make Pakistan think of consequences of escalating the situation in J&K. But having little choice in the matter, Pakistan will revert to status quo, as we are seeing along LOC. Regarding abrogation of 370, Pakistan was taken by surprise and its efforts to ratchet up the situation as an assault on freedom of Kashmiris has not really been lapped up by global community. The other suggestions by numerous contributors are same old recepies that we have read in the past. Best to ignore.
haha Brig … its quite amusing to know, while you guys successfully misled your masses through a “well orchestrated media propaganda”, that even men in uniform who know the kicks you got on your bums, would still believe that you did something. Remember we gave you a proof of kicking your bum too… Abi Nandan
Can we do the same in POK,GB,Baluchistan, that is taking feedback from the stakeholders
The Print… Has value only for Pakistanis. That’s why they donated a copy of their secrets to them…
Ha Ha. These Pakistanis r dying for resumption of dialogue. Forget Kashmir now and after 10 years we might think of any process if nothing sensational happens. If even one thing happens then cancel all talks for all times to come as a mode for punishment to pakistan.
Those who changed the demography of whole Pakistan are talking about the demography if Kashmir. By the way look after your hungry people. Look after your citizens of COVID-19. And look after your minorities and their human rights.
A Country Struggling To Feed Its Countrymen Makes A Dream World In The Name Of A Misconstrued Religious Belief In Terrorism And This For Sure Will Devour Pakistan
Looks like Pakistan’s obsession with Kashmir is going to continue. One sad fallout of it will that our Kashmiri brothers and sisters will CONTINUE to suffer the internet lockdown and other freedom restrictions due to Indian paranoia that in a relaxed atmosphere, the Kashmiris will start supporting the Pakistani cause. Post 5 August this is likely to be true, because Modi-Shah have succeeded in hurting the pride of a common Kashmiri. Earlier only some hothead Kashmiri youngsters were prone to pick up the gun with Pakistan’s help, but the larger cross-section of the population was content with merely dreaming about Freedom, freedom from BOTH India and Pakistan. But post 5 August their hatred for Modi-Shah’s India is so strong that as a recoil larger sections of Kashmiris may feel amenable to Pakistan’s designs. This is a sad reality of post 5 August “Indian occupied” J&K.
So what is the way out of this impasse? Will our Kashmiris PERPETUALLY remain devoid of basis services and freedom which is deeply hurting also their livelihood? The only way out in my opinion is – – both in the name of humanity, and for world peace – – that both India and Pakistan should accept the LOC as International Border. Meaning that each of them should worry about the governance and wellbeing of ITS OWN SIDE, without meddling in the affairs of the other side. Both the countries should be made to agree to this even with UN intervention if needed. After that, Indian government should lift all restrictions in our side of Kashmir, restore its State-status and other rules and restrictions needed for the betterment of the natives’ lives. The rules should also support maintaining the state’s pristine beauty without the temptation to convert it into another concrete jungle. The restrictions to prevent other Indians to buy property in Kashmir should continue ; afterall, don’t we already have such restrictions in Himachal and Uttarakhand?
Crazed Shah-Modi have created a monster. Slow genocide… its unfortunate. The USA has taken notice.
The Pakistanis are on the right track…. their obsession with Kashmir is only rising, and that will speed them on their way down.
Dreams are good but just dreaming all day long is not good for health and the country of pigistan
It’s the right strike. They are the monsters. They are destined to happen a big devastation for Pakistan. India patience has got exhausted n we have a now different approach to deal with the non state actors whosoever may be. Pakistanis are coward race who had denied to accept the dead bodies of its own poor regular army soldiers who fought in the kargil war. Really shocking. Don’t rely on them . We need to be more focused n non compromising aggression on our actions.
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Never in the post-independence history of India, a sitting prime minister has been criticised and ridiculed by his own people for miscalculating the implications of the Pulwama attack and the so-called surgical strikes in Balakot and plunging the region in a serious crisis for election benefits. The major reality seems to have emerged in the aftermath of the Pulwama incident and the so-called surgical strikes in Balakot is that Pakistan exercised utmost restraint and retaliated without it resulting in the outbreak of full-fledged hostilities.
In other words they are shitting bricks.
Please make a cut the clutter video on this. I’m bored of hearing the same Coronavirus episodes all these days.
No wonder Ms. Arundhati Roy is so dear to the Pakistani establishment. They unabashedly celebrate her.
Astounding level of delusion.