A Distraught Field Marshal

Things don’t seem to be going too well for the recently promoted Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. For starters, his promotion came about thanks to an illusion of Pakistan’s spectacular victory during the four-day-long Indo-Pak conflagrations in May conjured by the Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR].
However, since ISPR’s narrative was a generous mix of brazen lies, disinformation and omissions, it was bound to crumble under the sheer weight of physical evidence in terms of extensive damage caused to Pakistani defence facilities and terrorist assets. One such example: though the Pakistan air force [PAF] spokesperson emphatically claimed that the Nur Khan air base had suffered minimal damage, this strategic defence facility was hit so badly that even after four months it still remains non operational.
But this is not the Field Marshal’s only worry.
A significant increase in the intensity and frequency of attacks on security forces by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP] as well as armed groups in Balochistan has turned both these provinces into veritable battlefields. Resultantly, there’s an inordinate increase in casualties being suffered by the security forces. The disquieting part is that despite the use of overwhelming brute force by the Pakistan army, cessation of hostilities in the near future seems unlikely.

Arousing Emotions

As has been its wont, Rawalpindi continues to trivialise the burgeoning crises in KP and Balochistan in an attempt to conceal the Pakistan army’s humongous military failure in these two provinces. It’s doing this by under-reporting casualty data as well as diverting public opinion by falling back on the time tested stratagem of arousing anti-India sentiments amongst the masses in Pakistan by declaring that TTP and armed Baloch groups are proxies being sponsored by New Delhi .
Even though no credible evidence has been provided to support this allegation, the very mention of Indian involvement in KP and Balochistan is enough to mobilise public opinion in favour of the Pakistan army. And with Field Marshal Munir resurrecting the two nation theory by alleging that there was an existential incompatibility between Hindus and Muslims, even an honest attempt to put the army’s professional performance under scrutiny becomes an unpatriotic act.
Field Marshal Munir has attempted to further insulate his army’s professional shortcomings in dealing with TTP by his penchant for invoking Islamic edicts. To project TTP as an anti-Islamic entity, he has decreed that this group would henceforth be referred to as Fitna al Khwarij [a phrase used for the Khwarij Islamic sect responsible for the first civil war [Fitna] in the Islamic community].
Consequently TTP terrorists are now called “Khwarij belonging to Indian Proxy, Fitna al Khwarij” by Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR]. Thus besides being portrayed as a proxy of Pakistan’s arch enemy Indian, TTP is also being projected as an anti-Islamic group that [as per Field Marshal Munir’s own Quranic interpretation], “should be executed, hanged, or exiled from the land.”
Even though armed Baloch groups are not pursuing any religious agenda and are fighting solely against the unlawful occupation of their land and indiscriminate exploitation its resources by Pakistan, the Field Marshal has nevertheless officially named these groups Fitna al Hindustan in an attempt to depict them as an Indian proxy with an anti-Islamic character.

Grand Declarations and Ridiculous Threats

Field Marshal Munir has been breathing fire while addressing his countrymen- both within the country as well as those living abroad. In April, he summarily dismissed the serious security threat in Balochistan by boasting that "We will beat the hell out of these terrorists very soon ...you think, these 1500 terrorists belonging to BLA, BLF and BRA, etc, can take away Balochistan from us … [sic]"
Five months have since elapsed but one finds that despite massive deployment of soldiers supported by heavy artillery, drones, armed helicopters and even fighter jets, armed Baloch groups continue to hold sway in several districts and openly challenge the government’s writ with impunity. Besides attacking military targets at will, they are frequently blocking roads by establishing check posts in broad daylight and even taking over temporary control of cities after disarming the para military forces and local police.
The Pakistan army has also unleashed a reign of terror in an attempt to terrorise the Baloch people into submission. While enforced disappearances as well as extra judicial killing of innocent people are commonplace, those protesting peacefully against abduction and illegal confinement of their family members are being unduly harassed by the authorities.
Even the leadership of human rights movements like Baloch Yakjehti Committee [BYC] hasn’t been spared and many including BYC leader Mahrang Baloch, who in 2024 figured the BBC’s 100 list as well as in Time magazine’s TIME 100 Next list for shaping the future of politics, have been incarcerated on trumped up sedition charges.
However, these brute measures have failed to break the determination and resolve of the persecuted Baloch people. This is definitely a reason of serious concern for Rawalpindi and more for the Field Marshal who boasts about beating the hell out of the Baloch armed groups.

Prognosis

Field Marshal Munir’s recent utterances like his coarse talk about wrecking the “shining Indian Mercedes” with “dump truck full of gravel” [Pakistan], and the barefaced "If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us" nuclear threat smacks of extraordinary arrogance. Such behaviour is called superiority complex, a term used to describe an attitude of superiority which conceals actual feelings of inferiority and failure.
As mentioned earlier, Field Marshal Munir has accused New Delhi of sponsoring TTP and armed Baloch groups to wage proxy war and destabilise Pakistan as a state policy to divert public attention from Pakistan army’s failure to rein-in TTP and the various armed groups in Balochistan. Since the public largely believes this accusation, Pakistan based terrorist groups have started asking as to why isn’t the Field Marshal taking punitive military action against India?
In a country that’s fed 24X7 with anti-India propaganda and where Hinduphobia is institutionalised [remember Field Marshal Munir's "Hindus are different from Muslims in every way" remark?] this demand has the potential of gaining widespread public support.
Furthermore, Field Marshal Munir has made his countrymen believe that the Pakistani armed forces can easily destroy India as well as ensure that no harm comes to Pakistan. In the regard, readers would recall his pretentious “We’ll start from India’s East, where they have located their most valuable resources, and then move westwards” remark during the Tampa dinner in Florida
Since TTP and armed Baloch groups have no sanctuaries on Indian soil, the only form of the so-called retribution that Rawalpindi can undertake is to use its sponsored terrorists groups to commit some heinous act of terrorism. However, after being pummeled mercilessly for having masterminded the April 22 Pahalgam attack, only a dimwit would dare repeat any such action.
However, while his threat of taking down half the world if Pakistan is going down is a bit too far-fetched, if Field Marshal Munir feels that he’s going down [and with the way events are unfolding, this is a distinct possibility], then he’ll definitely take down half of Pakistan with himself.
So, while security forces in J&K need to maintain an enhanced state of vigilance against terrorist attacks, New Delhi too needs to be ready to inflict exemplary punishment on Pakistan and its proxies should Rawalpindi dare to cross the red line.

Email:--------------------------nileshkunwar.56@gmail.com