KARACHI: “Shutting down madressahs in the aftermath of Pulwama is wrong timing. We should have done it anyway but our doing it now has India pointing fingers at us, saying that ‘see Pakistan has had to take measures’ to prevent a repeat of the incident,” said a retired general on Saturday.

Retired Lt Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi, who also served as the defence secretary after his retirement from the army, was speaking at a programme on the future of the current stand-off between Pakistan and India at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs.

“The trigger for the recent escalation between Pakistan and India is Pulwama, and Pulwama had nothing to do with us. It was nurtured and home-grown in India,” he said.

“The present Indian government’s decision-making is done by their prime minister with the national security adviser. The nature of the Indian government is the nature of the deep state which functions through misinformation, sabotage, etc, to carry out their plans or game of getting an extra five years in power. So it is [linked] to political benefit,” he added.

I think that the Indians this time miscalculated, says former defence secretary

Gen Ghazi then reminded about the hype created by India earlier too about some surgical strikes in Pakistan, which he said was a lie. “But the whole thing was so hyped up by India that their people really thought that their forces came into the country via helicopters, attacked installations before being ‘helicoptered’ back.

“Since the surgical strikes had never taken place, Pakistan ignored whatever was being said by the other side. I think that the Indians this time miscalculated by thinking of doing the same kind of thing but contrary to what they thought Pakistan reacted in a limited but sure way to intercept their air attacks,” he said.

“It could also be that the payload dropped by the Indian pilots was also done just to show Pakistan that they could do it,” he added.

He then asked if the Indian prime minister’s support was reduced. “Well, no,” he answered his own question.

“So the current mood there is propelling everything. You don’t get into an escalation without any strategic advantages. The whole purpose of the episode could have also been isolating and sidelining Pakistan internationally and not really dismantling our military structures,” he said.

Earlier, former foreign secretary and ambassador Najmuddin Shaikh said that both Pakistan and India were still maintaining a high alert but the signs with the train and bus services started again suggest a return to normalcy.

“We should also not underestimate the significance of Kartarpur where the Indian government is said to be building a state-of-the-art facility worth $180 million for the pilgrims, which Pakistan would also reciprocate,” he said.

“Also there was no substantial damage done and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan also defused the situation. Now there is no confrontation likely. Modi, too, needs to do no more for his election campaign,” he pointed out.

Providing a bit of background to the whole episode, Amb Shaikh said that the Pulwama attack was said to be carried out by a perpetrator named Adil Ahmed Dar but he was arrested in India-held Kashmir and put in jail back on Sept 10, 2017. “Until Pulwama his family too had not heard of him. Then five days after the attack India says that he belonged to Jaish-i-Mohammad after which the JeM too claimed credit while helping the Indian propaganda,” he said.

“Then there is also the fact that all who were caught by India have self-confessed to belonging to Jaish-i-Mohammad. Meanwhile, it is also true that the explosives used in the attack were [obtained] locally as was the attack planned locally,” he said, adding that Pakistan should also take how things transpired very seriously.

“We have to understand the objective ground realities and control the means of violence here. The sooner we do it the better,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2019