By Shahid Farooq Abbasi – LIPR Ambassador of Peace
There is a famous Egyptian proverb that, “be patient with a bad neighbour, he may face misfortune.” Something similar happened with India when it tried to provoke a peace-loving neighbour Pakistan on the 26th of February 2019 by fabricating a false flag operation in Balakot. But the swift retort by Pakistan was not only surprising but also fetched great global humiliation for Indian defence forces.
India has an elongated history of dramatization of false flag operations against Pakistan after accusing Pakistan of harbouring terror sanctuaries in Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir and infiltrating terror affiliates into the Indian side of Kashmir through Line of Control. Nonetheless, there is a perception in masses that the Indian government and establishment use the surgical strikes phenomenon as a tool to console public outrage, and such events are usually enacted whenever India is undergoing polls or Indian authorities want to distract public opinion in its favour. For example, Uri Surgical Strike was embellished to dissuade public pressure after the Uri terror attack, and the 2019 Balakot strike was staged to garner voters’ support for BJP in general elections that were conducted in April 2019.
On 18 September 2016, separatists in the deadliest assault against Indian tenant forces in Uri district of Jammu & Kashmir killed at least 19 soldiers and wounded 30. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the history of insurgency in the valley. The incident not only downed the morale of Indian troops but also ignited immense public wrath against the Indian govt demanding to counteract and avenge the Uri incident. Shattered under the public pressure, the Indian establishment as usual put the culpability of their ineptitude on Pakistan and planned enactment of what they called a surgical strike against presumed terror launch pads inside Azad Kashmir on 29 September 2016.
The entire drama was exposed effectively by Pakistan and then DG ISPR Lt General Asim Saleem Bajwa escorted foreign journalists of CNN, BBC, VOA, Reuters, AP, AFP, News Week, and BBC Urdu Service to the area where India claimed to execute a surgical strike. Journalists were provided with a full picture of the ground situation. They found no evidence of any kind of strike in the area, even the residents of the area repelled Indian assertions by designating it as propaganda. Ignoring the embarrassment of the past, the obstinate Indian govt followed the lead of the Uri incident and repeated the theatre once again in 2019. On 14 February 2019, a suicide bomber in Pulwama rammed a convoy of Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF) of India leaving 40 Indian soldiers dead and several others injured. The incident left Indian forces in shock as they have never thought of an incident of such extent in the occupied valley.
Later on, Pakistan handed over Wing Commander Abhinandan to India in a peace-mongering gesture in an attempt to de-escalate the tensions between both countries. The entire Balakot episode turned out to be nightmarish for India as it widely exposed vulnerabilities in Indian defence and raised serious questions over the war capabilities of Indian ground and aerial forces.
Moreover, the Indian government failed to provide concrete proof of Balakot strikes, Indian opposition especially Congress has also raised suspicions over Balakot surgical strikes claimed by the BJP govt. Rahul Gandhi and Navjot Singh Sidhu demanded validations and count of the dead in the strike. Meanwhile Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in its satellite imagery suggested that there was no indication of damage on the site of the alleged strike. In short, the entire Balakot drama of India has backfired due to the efficacious response by Pakistan and the successful execution of “Operation Swift Retort”.
India’s jingoistic policies drew embarrassment at the global level as the faceoff exposed Indian fragility and inability of fighting a practical war, at the same time, Pakistan proved its dominance over India, both militarily and morally. Pakistan’s peace overtures are praised widely by the international community after acquitting Abhinandan as a peace gesticulation.
