Hyderabad: Defence Expert Major (Retd) Bharat Reddy spoke to ETV Bharat's Khursheed Wani amid the heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack, India's retaliatory air strikes, and subsequent drone attacks along the Line of Control (LoC).
ETV Bharat: What are your views on the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan?
Reddy: What's happening is Pakistan has a mandate to show that it can cause damage in India. Pakistan’s air force is considered good, almost equivalent to that of India's. India possesses an effective air defence system. We have anti-aircraft guns such as the L70, the S-400 defence system, and the Barak system (Israeli technology), among other systems. What Pakistan is doing can be called probing attacks. They are trying to find gaps or weaknesses in our air defence system.
ETV Bharat: Will Pakistan try to continue probing attacks, and will tensions further escalate?
Reddy: Look at what Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir did on April 16. While addressing Pakistan’s diaspora, he projected Pakistan as the most holy place on Earth after Mecca. He also stated his desire to capture Kashmir. He said Pakistan must be remembered by future generations. Munir was probably assuming that India would not attack Pakistan on a larger scale. But when India conducted airstrikes at nine places, attacking the headquarters of groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, Pakistan failed miserably to detect or stop the attacks.
ETV Bharat: At the geopolitical level, in the context of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, what could have been Pakistan’s strategy?
Reddy: After India's attack inside Pakistan, Munir has to project that he is in control of the situation. He was trying to project that they “can” enter India and attack. Asim Munir finds himself in a difficult position.
ETV Bharat: Do you mean to say that the worst is yet to come from Pakistan?
Reddy: Asim Munir is trying to send a message to the Pakistani people, not to India. He is under tremendous stress. He lost 28 soldiers in Balochistan. His soldiers are apparently unwilling to fight.
India’s message was clear: Pakistan's citizens are not the enemy, but the terror factories in Pakistan are. India’s strikes were precisely done on terror headquarters. India’s action was clearly not to escalate tensions further. Pakistan escalated the tensions because they don't have a face-saver or an exit strategy.
ETV Bharat: What are the responsibilities of the Indian people?
Reddy: The context is that India is a diverse country. Pakistan lost terribly in the last three conventional wars against India and knows it cannot win in a conventional war. So, they are trying to wage proxy wars. In India, Hindus and Muslims live together. In the Pahalgam attack, they wanted to trigger enmity between Hindus and Muslims in India, but failed.
ETV Bharat: Information war is also happening. What are the responsibilities of different sections of the people?
Reddy: In the larger context, we should be aware that social media is used for social engineering. People should exercise caution regarding any content encountered on social media.
ETV Bharat: Is the situation de-escalating, or what is the current situation?
Reddy: India wants peace in Kashmir. Our objective is peace. Washington said it will not interfere. China is supporting Pakistan, but this is not happening openly. China always plays a proxy role. Recent Turkish politics suggest that Erdogan got a full majority, and Turkey is projecting itself as an Islamic saviour. The Turkish leader is trying to establish that they are a crusader for the Muslim community globally. This is a developing situation. Escalation is happening. It is now for Pakistan to decide whether to withdraw.
