Terroristan - March 31, 2022

[ricky_v]

What's stopping the bakis from bribing the meddler-in-chief with tasking his realty company with developing prime lands in Balochistan (that people claim they have lost control of) or in the swat valley? That was one of the prime selling points of gaza for him personally, prime realty near the Mediterranean

All throughout history, civilisations have had to bribe barbarians so as to temporarily befriend them, this one seems more transparent than the others.
Or reinstitute the houbara bustard hunting privileges for the esteemed? If all else fails, they can try their famed cases of mangoes

Point is if the leader of the free world has shown a heathy appetite for a bit of paid friendship, it would be stupid of pakis to not take advantage of this situation, especially if this friendship doesn't cost them anything

[drnayar]

What's stopping the bakis from bribing the meddler-in-chief with tasking his realty company with developing prime lands in Balochistan (that people claim they have lost control of) or in the swat valley? That was one of the prime selling points of gaza for him personally, prime realty near the Mediterranean

All throughout history, civilisations have had to bribe barbarians so as to temporarily befriend them, this one seems more transparent than the others.
Or reinstitute the houbara bustard hunting privileges for the esteemed? If all else fails, they can try their famed cases of mangoes

Point is if the leader of the free world has shown a heathy appetite for a bit of paid friendship, it would be stupid of pakis to not take advantage of this situation, especially if this friendship doesn't cost them anything

right maybe the chinese could join in as well !!.. .
Bharat can't trust either when push comes to shove.

[Manish_P]

Was Trump family's crypto deal with Pakistan a factor in Asim Munir's calculations?

A cryptocurrency venture tied to US President Donald Trump’s family has entered into a high-profile agreement with Pakistan’s Crypto Council, sparking controversy over its timing and potential implications amid heightened military tensions in South Asia.

World Liberty Financial (WLF), a blockchain investment firm in which Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr reportedly hold a 60 per cent stake, signed a letter of intent with the Pakistan Crypto Council in late April.

Among those who travelled to Islamabad to cement the partnership was Zachary Witkoff, son of Trump’s longtime business associate Steve Witkoff. Witkoff was accompanied by senior WLF executives Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro.

The group held meetings with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and more significantly, the powerful army chief General Asim Munir. While there is no public record linking the crypto discussions to national security matters, Munir’s personal involvement has triggered speculation in India about whether economic overtures from Trump-linked entities played any role in the Pakistan Army’s posture during the crisis.

The agreement, according to statements from WLF and the Pakistan Crypto Council, aims to promote blockchain integration across Pakistan’s financial systems. This includes plans for stablecoin development, tokenisation of assets, and regulatory sandboxes for pilot projects in decentralised finance.

WLF has denied any political motivations behind its Pakistan outreach. In a press statement, the company said its goal is to support “financial inclusion and digital transformation” in emerging economies. However, the presence of figures so closely tied to the Trump family and the overlapping timeline with Pakistan’s heightened military activity have led some in India to question whether a financial lifeline was being extended in exchange for geopolitical manoeuvring.

[a_bharat]

There was a news article today saying that a company which owns majority stake in Bytedance (maker of TikTok) was going to invest $300 million in a few cryptos including $TRUMP. Brazen corruption.

[chetak]

A Pakistani general is asked if he regrets backing terr0r groups that are now ki££ing Pakistanis too.

His answer: "Collateral damage"

This is the mentality of Pakistani establishment which tweets in support of CONgress during Bharat's Elections. Why?


WATCH VIDEO

[ricky_v]

a very straightforward article on rcd re: the relationship between the us and tsp and why us should keep supporting it in the near future

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articl ... 10826.html

Dr. Julian Spencer-Churchill is an associate professor of international relations at Concordia University and the author of Militarization and War (2007) and Strategic Nuclear Sharing (2014). He has published extensively on Pakistan security issues and arms control and completed research contracts at the Office of Treaty Verification at the Office of the Secretary of the Navy and the then Ballistic Missile Defense Office (BMDO). He has also conducted fieldwork in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Egypt and is a consultant. He is a former Operations Officer of the 3rd Field Engineer Regiment from the latter end of the Cold War to shortly after 9/11. He tweets at @Ju_Sp_Churchill.




Pakistan is Strategically Indispensable to Washington

The strategic concern with India is that, of all the great powers, it is closest to consolidating domination over its neighbors in its region. Only the U.S. has ever achieved the status of regional hegemon, which it attained in the 1890s when Great Britain abandoned Canada to its fate. China, separated by the sea, Brazil, disconnected by the Andes, and as a yet non-expansionist Nigeria, all outnumber their regional neighbors in population. According to University of Chicago Professor John J Mearsheimer, in his The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, countries are tempted to start wars to conquer their own continental regions, even if there is a low prospect of success, because the security payoff is tremendous. These were the motives of the Hapsburgs, Louis XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte, Wilhelmine and Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and now Communist China.


The U.S., which is the only country ever to have achieved continental hegemony, pays very little for the cost of its local defense because of the protection of the Oceans. In what is called a strategy of offshore balancing, Washington is then able to project power to support smaller countries draining the resources of the regional hegemonic candidates on other continents. This thereby increases the cost of any retaliation against the U.S., such as the costly Soviet backing of Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada during the Cold War. Pakistan, a growing democracy, has repeatedly demonstrated itself to be a reliable offshore ally of the U.S. during the Cold War and the Global War on Terror. Pakistan-based U-2 aircraft overflew the USSR from bases in Peshawar and coordinated with Israel for the transfer of small arms to the mujahidin in Afghanistan in the 1980s, while India leaned significantly farther than the anti-Western Non-Aligned Movement, to cooperate with Moscow.

There are four pervasive but inaccurate Western criticisms of Pakistan.
First, that it is a military-run hybrid democracy that produces an especially aggressive foreign policy and war. Pakistan has been under some form of military governance for 45 of its 78 years since Partition in 1947 (1958-1971, 1977-1988, 1999-2008), starting with the seizure of power by Army Chief Ayub Khan. Pakistan’s three military coups have been remarkably peaceful in part because they were initially supported by most Pakistanis who sought to reduce widespread corruption and inefficiency in the civilian legislature. Surprisingly, the 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999 wars were all initiated under civilian governments or former late-stage civilianized military leaders ruling through political parties. Cross-border infiltrations from Pakistan to Kashmir are invariably lower during periods of military governance, which can more easily resist public demands for action than civilian regimes. The underlying reasons for the 1958 coup were fiscal inefficiency of the civilian regime; in 1977 it was the military’s reaction against a proposal by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to create a paramilitary force to counterbalance military influence; and in 1999 it was because, despite repeated warnings, debt-servicing was permitted by civilian financial authorities to exceed the military budget.

Compared to most military governments, Pakistan’s army typically does not seek financial aggrandizement. Critics often point-out the well-run service enterprises, such as the Fauji, Shaheen, and Bahria foundations, whose private sector investments and corporations underwrite pensions, schools and hospitals for their nine million beneficiaries in a society where most public institutions are inefficient. Pakistan’s railway and postal workers have similar charitable trusts. Pakistan’s miniscule defense budget of $10bn is a third of Canada’s, and supports the indigenous assembly or full production of tanks, aircraft, ships, submarines, missiles and enriched Uranium-235 and plutonium nuclear warheads. Pakistan’s defense has only a 16 percent share of the budget and 2.2 percent of GDP, and thus its diversion into education and health would have a negligible impact on poverty. Rather, military stabilization of Pakistan’s institutions is more likely to reduce capital flight and the brain drain, and increase foreign direct investment. Pakistan has largely kept pace economically with India, despite lacking the same economies of scale.

Contrary to the Clausewitzian dictum that war is an extension of politics and that, therefore, civilian supremacy is ideal, the optimal civilian-military balance in a cabinet depends on the nature of the strategic threat. Overly civilized decision-making can be equally dysfunctional, particularly in its failure to appreciate threats and to respond expeditiously. Pakistan’s army influence on policy, much like the disproportionate presence of military decision-makers in South Korea’s, Taiwan’s, and Israel’s civilian cabinets, is an evolution of its security competition with India, whose population outnumbers it over six-fold. Anti-colonial leftists and Hindutva rightists in the Indian independence movement militated against the creation of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s April 1948 intervention into Kashmir was under the command of British General Sir Douglas Gracey, Pakistan’s Commander-in-Chief until 1951, a veteran general against Near East Axis and Japanese armies. Kashmir is geopolitically critical because it is the headwaters of the five rivers of the Punjab (Jhelam, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas) and the Indus that irrigates and sustains Pakistan’s 260 million people. The formative war scare of 1949 erupted from a currency dispute through a communal riot into the deployment of India’s armored division into the Punjab with a threat from Sardar Patel to invade then defenceless Pakistan. This incident ended Indo-Pakistani trade, without resumption since. A second war scare in July of 1951 with the same Indian 1st Armored Division being deployed, led to the permanent installation of Pakistan’s military at the center of foreign policymaking. Today that influence is routinized through the institution of an annual Corps Commander’s conference, and the regularized use of the 111th Brigade for coup implementation since 1971. The Pakistan army’s outsized influence in government is a consequence and not cause of tensions with India.


The second criticism is that Pakistan is a state-sponsor of terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere in India, and a reluctant supporter of NATO and UN operations in Afghanistan, as demonstrated by the harboring of Usama bin-Laden. There is the temptation to ignore the political science maxim that politics is local, and to exaggerate and repeat the erroneous inference that terrorism is the result of an agitated Umma uniting Takfiri militants from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, Xinjiang, Kashmir, Mindanao, Rohingya, Mogadishu and Bali. The illusion of a common front is more the amplified collective Western anxiety of the challenges of integrating Muslim immigrants, not unlike incidents of civil strife caused by leftist newcomers from the 1880s to the 1920s.

The third criticism is that Pakistan is a nuclear weapons proliferator to third parties, infamously exemplified by physicist A.Q. Khan, in conjunction with senior individuals of Pakistan’s army, whose unsanctioned network included Iran. In addition, the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had an official policy of exchanging centrifuge for missile technology with North Korea. However, Pakistan is now an exemplar of the moderation and maturation effect described by Kenneth Waltz that occurs when a state masters the complexity of nuclear weapon production. Islamabad has agreed to almost every U.S. initiative for safe storage and arms control measures with New Delhi. Pakistan is proceeding steadily to exploit its limited uranium reserves, but has desisted from testing thermonuclear weapons, likely in exchange for U.S. sponsored IMF financing. The U.S. and China came to an informal arrangement in the 1990s in which Beijing circumvented the Nuclear Suppliers Group to technologically maintain Pakistan’s deterrent. In exchange, Beijing agreed not to object to the U.S.’s 123 Agreement with India to supply reactor fuel, so that New Delhi can redirect its scarce fissile material to military purposes. Some U.S. observers have noted Pakistan’s restraint, as a nuclear power, in not confronting Israel over its killing of several tens of thousands non-combatants.

The fourth criticism regards disreputable human rights, which includes the 1979 Hudood Ordinances that Islamicized jurisprudence under President Zia ul-Haq, and the generally repressive governance of Pakistan’s provinces, especially Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkwa, in which collective punishment is a legal instrument. Although Pakistan faces many of the same intersectional issues of state and nation creation typical of new and multi-lingual developing countries, and a burdensome layering of feudal, Sharia and Anglo-Saxon law, it is also possessed of spirited human rights advocates and a vigorous press. By comparison, at equivalent levels of development, nineteenth century U.S. and Europe industrialized with questionable democratic systems that excluded women and certain minorities, and restricted labor rights.

Pakistan’s strength is its bureaucratic tradition inherited from Muhajir talent, the English Raj, and the Mughals, which has enabled it to assimilate advanced military technology and to conduct sophisticated diplomacy.

Washington believes that New Delhi fits neatly into its China containment coalition. However, it is unaware that India has no intention of joining a war to defend Taiwan, has little ability to confront the Chinese PLA in the Himalayas given their relative nuclear weakness, and its oulook continues to promote neutralist ideas that justify its commitment to BRICS-led de-dollarization. When India was working on its Surya ICBM, it selected Washington D.C. as its default target, a fact that drew protests from the U.S. administration. India is also more inclined to ally with Russia, which it needs to counter-balance China, although its relations with Iran are fraying over Israel. Rather, a Sino-U.S. war over Taiwan would provide New Delhi the rare opportunity of occupying or Balkanizing an isolated Pakistan, an outcome contrary to U.S. interests.


Pakistan is an ideal offshore balancer: sufficiently democratic to permit sensitive arms transfers, appropriately moderate in its foreign policy to qualify for financial assistance, and in constant need of external backers. Nor is there a bidding war for Islamabad’s allegiance. All of Beijing, Washington and Riyadh have counselled Pakistan to address the Kashmir dispute with restraint. Pakistan’s military has also demonstrated repeated battlefield and technical expertise.

The question then becomes an opaquer one of whether a devastated India or Pakistan is more politically centrifugal. In either case, the U.S. loses if China escapes any effect while Pakistan and India are reciprocally neutralized. Certainly, the community of democracies loses if India and Pakistan are devastated, with the precedent of a nuclear war feeding proliferation and now legitimizing the widespread use of nuclear weapons. For Washington, Pakistan is a dependent future hedge, and a nuclear-armed state worth engaging and reassuring to avoid nuclear escalation. Paradoxically, Washington’s interests would be well-served to advise China that protecting Pakistan affords Beijing greater benefit than conspiring to conquer Taiwan. Washington may even draw closer to Beijing as the latter moderates and if New Delhi does not. Even more paradoxical, China could win and seize Taiwan, but then be dragged into an Indo-Pakistan nuclear war that also draws in Russia and the U.S.

[A_Gupta]

“ This incident ended Indo-Pakistani trade, without resumption since.” 1949?

Added: Author's ties with Pakistan, see the co-author
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 0#abstract
Nasir Mehmoodb Department of Strategic Studies, National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Another from 2024:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 8724000553
Pakistan-US Friendship: An Enduring Geo-Political Relationship
Nasir Mehmood, Julian Spencer-Churchill

My diagnosis - aging academic seeking relevance.

[sanjaykumar]

And that man of god, osama was a tourist marvelling at Mughal architecture in an army cantonment in peaceful, progressive Pakistan when the US military mistakenly hoorified him.

[A_Gupta]

India Today is reporting that Saifullah Khalid, LeT, was killed by unknown assailants.
The Mint is saying, India Today is saying this, but they haven't been able to confirm.

[A_Gupta]

https://www.zeebiz.com/economy-infra/wo ... isk-362743

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slapped 11 new conditions on Pakistan for the $ 7 billion lifeline that it has extended and also flagged the rising tensions with India as a huge risk for the cash-strapped country.

-------
Looks like IMF wants Pak defense expenditure to increase by 12% where the Paki govt wanted to increase it by 18%.

[VinodTK]

India Today is reporting that Saifullah Khalid, LeT, was killed by unknown assailants.
The Mint is saying, India Today is saying this, but they haven't been able to confirm.

Times Of India
Top LeT terrorist Abu Saiullah, behind 3 major attacks on India, eliminated in Pakistan's Sindh

[A_Gupta]

ToI, Tom Cooper - Tom Cooper says he has spoken to veteran US Army officers who guarded Pakistani nukes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxFYal-2JeI&t=67s

[williams]

India Today is reporting that Saifullah Khalid, LeT, was killed by unknown assailants.
The Mint is saying, India Today is saying this, but they haven't been able to confirm.

Times Of India
Top LeT terrorist Abu Saiullah, behind 3 major attacks on India, eliminated in Pakistan's Sindh

Now that the dust as settled in the land of the pure, the unknown assailants are back in business.

[LakshmanPST]

"A second war scare in July of 1951 with the same Indian 1st Armored Division being deployed"

----
Never heard of this...
May be Paki propaganda to justify militarization, but interesting...

[A_Gupta]

How Dawn puts it:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1911863/relig ... tli-attack

BADIN: Unidentified assailants shot dead a well-known social worker, who was also vice president of the Markazi Muslim League (MML), in a suspected targeted attack in Matli on Sunday, police said.

They said Razaullah Nizamani, 50, was going to work when three armed men, riding a motorbike, fired at him on Phalkara Road and rode away.

...
Nizamani, also known by the alias Saifullah, had long been playing an active role in reformative and welfare activities and propagation of faith.

[A_Gupta]

No corroboration for some of the info below:
https://www.ap7am.com/en/101198/fear-gr ... h-province

A leading Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Abdul Wahid Kumbho was shot dead before top LeT terrorist Razaullah Nizamani Khalid, also known as Abu Saifullah Khalid, was killed by armed men in Sindh province on Sunday, local sources confirmed on Monday.

They acknowledged that the so-called "targetted killings" of LeT terrorists in several parts of Pakistan have increased after India's decisive 'Operation Sindoor' which demolished several terror facilities deep inside Pakistan, earlier this month.

While Nizamani orchestrated several major terror attacks in India before moving to Nepal and eventually settling down in Sindh province with Pakistani security agencies providing full security to him, Kumbho, who projected himself as a social worker, was a member of LeT's political front Milli Muslim League (MML). He was killed by armed men before Nizamani in the same area of Matli in Badin district of Pakistan's Sindh province.

"Abdul Wahid Kumbho was killed on the spot while another person named Tahir was injured. Police authorities arrested two people named Ghulam Shabir and Rafaqat, members of the Sindh nationalist group Sindh Desh Revolution Army," said local agencies.

[kancha]

"A second war scare in July of 1951 with the same Indian 1st Armored Division being deployed"

----
Never heard of this...
May be Paki propaganda to justify militarization, but interesting...

It very much happened. Some Paki army veterans have written about it. Shall try and dig out more info

[A_Gupta]

The formative war scare of 1949 erupted from a currency dispute through a communal riot into the deployment of India’s armored division into the Punjab with a threat from Sardar Patel to invade then defenceless Pakistan. This incident ended Indo-Pakistani trade, without resumption since.

India-Pakistan: The History of Unsolved Conflicts: Volume I
By Lars Blinkenberg

Summary - in September 1949, Great Britain devalued the pound sterling; India followed suit devaluing the Indian rupee; Pakistan did not devalue its rupee. As a result "Pakistani jute and cotton would cost 40% more". The Indian government refused to recognize the Pakistani rupee and trade stopped till April 1950.

Between January and March 1950, 500,000 refugees from East Pakistan entered India. "Even the socialist leader, Jayaprakash Narayan, spoke of police action against East Pakistan". But Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaqat Ali Khan met in April 1950 and stetted these issues.

---
Militarization and War
By J. Schofield

The initial challenges to the independence of the civilian regime {in Pakistan} were three successive war scares. The first occurred during the First Kashmir War. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948, led Pakistan to fear a general widening of the war between it and India. Pakistan deployed the largest force it had to date in the Punjab opposite India, and these forces were to remain permanently in place thereafter. This had little militarizing effect on Pakistan's civilian regime, which maintained effective direction of operations in Kashmir against India.

Two more war scares followed within a year after the end of the First Kashmir War. The second started over a trade dispute in 1949-1950 and resulted in a further military build up in the Punjab.

The third, in the summer of 1951, was the result of an Indian decision to proceed with a constituent assembly in Kashmir. Military forces were again deployed to Punjab.

The author is not clear, but as far as I can tell, the military deployments to Punjab were by Pakistan. Indian deployments were in reaction.Will try to confirm.

I have the collected works of Sardar Patel, I cannot find any threat by him against Pakistan in this period, though I will look further. I thnk the entire history is bogus. However, it has been conveniently fed to Google AI, and the bogus history is what you will find if you ask the AI.

[A_Gupta]

Pakistan’s April 1948 intervention into Kashmir was under the command of British General Sir Douglas Gracey, Pakistan’s Commander-in-Chief until 1951, a veteran general against Near East Axis and Japanese armies.

Wiki:

When the Pakistani tribal invasion of Kashmir began on 22 October 1947, Messervy was away in London, and Gracey was acting as the Army Chief. He declined to send Pakistani troops to the Kashmir front as ordered by Mohammad Ali Jinnah (the Governor General) but referred the issue to Claude Auchinleck, the Supreme Commander of Indian and Pakistani forces. Both the armies were under joint British command at this stage, and Auchinleck had already issued Standdown instructions to the effect that all British officers would stand down in the event of a military conflict between the two countries. After hearing Auchinleck's reasoning, Jinnah rescinded his order.

So more bogus history by this xxx-Churchill guy.

Added: I have corroboration of the above from "Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah Papers", Z.H. Zaidi Editor-in-'Chief, First Series, Volume IX, Item KR-414, page 314, Claude Auchinleck to Chiefs of Staff, London.

[ricky_v]

well, my main agenda of posting the article was to show the institutional alignment of the us military academics re: conflicts in south asia, you can see in churchill's articles, he uses textbook terms to get from point A to B, thus anyone using the same rationale and methodology, as i suppose his peers from the same military background, will lead to the same overarching conclusion: pakistan is an indispensable ally of the us

re: dodgy history, do not really know if that is cooked up by the author or mentioned in their field guide: the 20 minute primer to understanding the 1000 year conflict in sooth aisa

[A_Gupta]

^^^ I see a lot of Nasir Mehmood in the piece.

[A_Gupta]

NDTV:
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/lashkar ... e_vignette

New Delhi:
Amir Hamza, cofounder and senior leader of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was hospitalised in Pakistan's Lahore following injuries sustained at his residence, sources said. Hamza, long known for his close association with LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and the group's deputy Abdul Rehman Makki, was admitted to a local medical facility under a security detail. The nature and extent of his injuries have not been disclosed. There has been no official comment from Pakistani authorities or the LeT on the incident, sources added

[A_Gupta]

Reportedly China is delivering J-35A planes to Pakistan in 2025.
e.g., https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 2dQbRv2qhE

[williams]

Funny, Pakis are always after new खिलौना and Chinese are ready to provide for it. They keep harping about it until reality hits and it does not deter Bharat to act to give them proper थप्पड़. The problem with these Chinese maal is most of them are not battle tested and are subject to massive propaganda. We need to filter these news items and some how figure out if it is plain propaganda or if it is the real thing. This is where real humint comes in play and GoI has good handle on that. The massive थप्पड़ Pakis received in Op Sindoor proves that.

[kancha]

----
Never heard of this...
May be Paki propaganda to justify militarization, but interesting...

It very much happened. Some Paki army veterans have written about it. Shall try and dig out more info

An excerpt from 'The Way It Was - Inside the Pakistan Army' by Brig (Retd) Z.A. Khan

(Page 32)

After returning from exercise 'Qayadat' we heard the news that relations between Pakistan and India had deteriorated, the Pakistan Army, the whole three and a half divisions of it, had moved to the border and war appeared imminent. Because of the likelihood of a war, it was decided by GHQ that the 5th PMA Course would alos be commissioned with our course. the 5th PMA Course did an intensive course in tactics for about six weeks and were ready for commissioning, they became known as the 'Nehru' commissioned course.

These two courses got commissioned on 25 Aug 1951.

Page 37

Because war was imminent with India, there was an emergency and one of us was detailed as 'telephone duty officer' after working hours till the next morning.

It is an excellent book to read on the Pakistan Army in its initial days, right upto 1971 and a bit thereafter as well. Much recommended for folks interested in knowing a bit more about the enemy.

[A_Gupta]

Minor’s popularity in TSP soars and/or Reuters is thoroughly infiltrated.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 025-05-21/

[Tanaji]

I noticed that quite a few of the articles that came out initially and given wide publicity by likes of NYT, Reuters etc were written by people with Muslim names. No prizes on guessing what the very obvious slant was…

[Tanaji]

Reportedly China is delivering J-35A planes to Pakistan in 2025.
e.g., https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 2dQbRv2qhE

I am surprised that China is willing to risk its jet being shot down as it invariably will be…

[sanjaykumar]

^but reporting on Israel Palestine and Muslims in Europe or America is almost never by Muslims in the same papers.

[A_Gupta]

I know that Terroristan has been dissected at length previously on BRF.
Question is - is it time for a fresh look? E.g., is Asim Munir's Failed Marshal rank a desperate measure to keep the Paki Army to be the uppermost in a set of squabbling clans, or is it a strong assertion of central control?

I read that Asim Munir is from a Shia background. How much does he have to do to keep trust with the Salafi LeT, for instance?

Now that Afghanistan is under the Taliban with no threats from the West, and apparently not friendly with the Pakis, how that does play in the mix?

Baluchistan was never previously as significant a factor as it is now.

Then there is the joker in the Pack - Imran Khan - who might enjoy a degree of popular support not seen in recent times for a Paki politician.

Can the BRF gyanis put forward their gyan? Would be much appreciated.

[A_Gupta]

Also, there is this, I'm not sure how reliable it is. It suggests to me that the Paki Army is not in full control of LeT. The story is at the time of Pulwama, and involves Asim Munir.

This is the YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCMgika6LlE&t=1245s
It is in Hindi.
संवाद # 161: Top IFS officer expelled by Pakistan on Pulwama, Balakot, Imran, Modi | Ajay Bisaria

This is a Google Translate into English of the automatically generated transcript:

When ISI prevented a terror attack in Pulwama!!!

And you forwarded it to the Indian government that terrorist attack was going to happen again in Pulwama. ISI had given the tip for that. ISI was its chief Assam Munir who is the chief of Pakistan Army today. So tell me the story a little bit.

This is correct. So in June, it was the time of Ramzan.I got a call quite late. Yes, I got this tip or I am trying to say at your level. So I told him that Look, such things keep happening. Intelligence agencies keep giving tips to each other. This was not a new thing at all. But the new thing was that they wanted to give that message again or point it out at the political level or at the high commissioner's level.

So after that I asked him whether he had told this through normal channels as well. He said that he might have told it. But we felt it necessary to tell it at your level as well, so we conveyed this to India There were many analyses of why he did this. He probably did it as a trust building, confidence building measure.

Or he was afraid that an incident like Pulwama might happen again between us and Al Qaeda. Or he did it with some organization over which Pakistan does not have full control and an incident might happen.

Or he wanted to build confidence. There was a possibility at that time. That Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Imran Khan might meet in SCO, in some third country or in some military to military talks. So he did it to build confidence a little. Whatever it was, it was clear that something was changing. Pakistan was worried that if an incident like Pulwama happened again, they were not prepared.

We were not prepared for an incident like Balakot to happen again, you also had a little doubt that this I am telling you that maybe it is a game, you also did not believe it the first time when They told me but when the incident happened, they prevented it from happening but it was correct

Why would DG ISI call India to warn of a possible terrorist attack unless he lacked the ability to get them to abort their mission?

[A_Gupta]

I am not one who wants to fight Pakistan to the last Baloch, so I'd really like to understand if the Baloch have a real chance at independence, or will their cause be more like that of the Kurds, who have not been able to set up an independent Kurd state?

What are the possible pathways to Baloch independence?

[sanjaykumar]

Open source intelligence indicates mullah field marshal saab was born in Qazibund, now in Pakistan.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qazigund

[A_Gupta]

Though this is happening in Iran, it is because of Terroristan (and Afghanistan).
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/232108/Ira ... e-security

TEHRAN, May 21 (MNA) – Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Bagheri said that Iran is actively constructing walls along its eastern borders to improve the security situation.
Major General Bagheri made these remarks late on Tuesday while visiting Sistan and Baluchestan Province to inspect armed forces stationed in the border region and monitor the progress of the border fortification.

He said that numerous military units affiliated with the Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and the Police Command are stationed in this province, as it remains a priority for the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

This from October last year:
https://asiaplustj.info/en/news/world/2 ... rn-borders

Iranian media reports say Iran has started building border wall across eastern borders....
...
According to IRNA, General Goudarzi noted, “Based on security and military assessments, the most critical areas are the borderlines with Pakistan and Afghanistan, which account for 80% of drug trafficking into Iran.”

[Amber G.]

Pakistan rejected Indigo Delhi Srinagar flight request to use Pakistan airspace to avoid turbulence
PS-
Pakistan was attacking India earlier this month while civilian flights were leaving Lahore.

[A_Gupta]

The Friday Times, Umer Faooq:

The amount and nature of destruction the Indian military operation has caused inside Pakistan will not even deter the Station House Officer (SHO) of Secretariat Police Station—in whose jurisdiction Pakistan’s state institutions are located—what to talk about the military and intelligence services. On the other hand, Pakistan’s delusional and blinkered view of deterrence—that nuclear weapons would prevent India from launching conventional attacks on Pakistani territory—has been buried under the debris of Indian cruise missiles and Pakistani rockets. However, India’s equally delusional notion that the fear of an Indian conventional response would prevent terrorism from hitting Indian territory will not work either.

I give credence to the last line.

This claim is made:

Any dispassionate analysis of Pakistan’s security landscape and the role these Punjab-based militant groups play in the production of this landscape will prove beyond any reasonable doubt that these militant groups have an organisational and command structure, which is distinct from the command and organisational structure of the Pakistani state and military.
...
...
In Pakistan, these groups don’t operate on the surface; they are underground, outlawed entities. Equating their organisational structure with the organisational and command structure of the Pakistani military and intelligence services will be a folly of the highest order, and any future military action undertaken based on this basic premise will hurt the security interests of not only South Asia but would prove to be a catastrophe for the global order. To see and perceive these militant groups as part of the Pakistani military command and organisational structures—as India seems to be doing—makes good propaganda points for the domestic consumption of a hysterical society but this premise will provide the inherently flawed basis for a military strategy—a military strategy that can prove too costly for human life in South Asia and perhaps globally.

[Amber G.]

Meanwhile pesh hai an occasional, take on Pakistani issues by General X (formerly General Twitter). ...

I am Field Marshal thanks not to Allah, but you Narendra Modi: Pakistani General X


A Special Guard of Honour ceremony for Field Marshal Asim Munir, held at Yadgar-e-Shuhada, General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi, Pakistan | Photo: @OfficialDGISPR)

[Deans]

https://rpdeans.blogspot.com/2025/05/pa ... again.html

A tribute to the unknown gunmen in Pakistan silently doing their job - in my latest blogpost.

[sanjaykumar]

Abu Qatal?


India has incredibly granular intelligence resources. When and where, their instantaneous locations. To the extent of being informed of their morning movements.

[A_Gupta]

The only way so many murders take place without a single arrest is that Paki officialdom is protecting the murderers.