Umair Pervez Khan,
14 th February of this year was greeted by Kashmiri “freedom fighter” with heavy strike on the convoy of Indian army in Pulwama, occupied Kashmir. The attack left 44 Indian army men killed and many of them injured. This was the deadliest attack that Indian army faced in three decades of the Kashmiri insurrection. Reports followed that alleged attacker, Adil Ahmad Dar, 20, belonged to the village of Lethipora in occupied Kashmir. Jaish-e-Muhammad, the organization that has been associated with Kashmir freedom movement took the responsibility
of the attack. Within minutes of the attack, Indian media and officials, as usual, pointed fingers to Pakistan. The timing of this happening was crucial as Muhammad Bin Suleman, the crown prince of KSA was visiting Pakistan. Pakistani government and people were busy in welcoming their eminent guest. No immediate reaction was given
from the top brass of civil and military authorities. It was taken as a usual propaganda stunt from neighboring India. But as the time passed the intensity of Indian propaganda signified which compelled Pakistan to respond. Prime Minister Imran Khan in his address to nation categorically denied such baseless allegations and offered to carry out investigations and to operate if any “actionable intelligence” is provided to Pakistan by India. Muhammad bin Suleman, after his visit to Pakistan, arrived in India for a state visit. Indian premiere tried to use his visit as a diplomatic campaign against Pakistan and asked crown prince “to condemn Pakistan for orchestrating Pulwama” but prince crown and his team evaded naming Pakistan without any
evidence. In this whole scenario India once again acted aggressively and warmongers sitting in Delhi continued pushing their government to strike Pakistan. They started to quote the incident of “surgical air strike” in reaction of Uri attack in 2017. The so- called surgical strike was baseless as India didn’t had any evidence of the strike. Later international media also interrogated the matter and were convinced of the falsification of the facts by Government of India. Anyhow now the situation has worsened, and Indian air force violated “line of control” and have allegedly intruded into Azad Kashmir, dropping the payload into a forest. The response from Pakistan air force was quick but calculated. The restrain policy that Pakistani air force showed is not cowardness but a responsible one. It is of no doubt that Pakistan can strike down such intrusion with automatic guarded missile and radar
system but in this case, Pakistan allowed Indian jets to retreat to Indian air space because if these jets were wrecked then war was inevitable. I do consider this restrain from Pakistan a wise one.
Being a student of world politics, I want to ask if war between India and Pakistan an option. The answer to this is a big “NO” because it will not only destroy both countries but will ruin largest continent of the world. It will affect more than half population of the world. Moreover, use of nuclear arms can raise the temperature of the earth making it nearly impossible for the remaining inhabitants to survive normally. In the result of war, the whole world will face food shortage as this region contributes maximum in the food cycle of the whole world. Keeping in view the fact that, both countries have a history of wars and after
being nuclear this is not for the first time they have come to this point. The international bodies like UN and other major powers should take notice and arbitrate the key problem between them i.e. Kashmir, otherwise the threat of a nuclear war is unavoidable. The incidents like Uri, Pathankot, Pulwama, APS attack and many other posses the threat of bringing both countries into state of war. India must stop human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir and accept the reality that the movement that is going on in the valley of occupied Kashmir is an
indigenous one and can only be stopped by democratic political means which both countries had agreed upon in 1948 in UN.
In present circumstances, I believe, Pakistan has showed maximum restraint and responsibility to avoid a disaster in the region. The Modi government must understand, and for domestic purpose i.e. to win coming elections, it must not put peace of the world at stake. The government of India should act responsibly or else it would be too late for it to realize. This is also to reiterate that if warmongers are present in India then Pakistan also have such provokers, and if their opinion dominated then whole region will lead to complete destruction.
(The writer is an M. Phil graduate in International Relations. Currently visiting lecturer at International Islamic University, Islamabad)
