Pahalgam terror attack: Was Pak army chief's speech a warning?

Just days before the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir reignited aggressive rhetoric over Kashmir.

Transcript

00:00Our stance, government stance on Kashmir is absolutely clear.

00:06It was our juggler win. It is our juggler win. We will not forget it.

00:11Inshallah, we will cut our guns and keep our enemies of the victims.

00:19Lashkar-e-Taybha, TRF, these are just names.

00:23This is the handwork of the Pakistani army and the ISI.

00:26His obnoxious narrative suggested that the Pakistani army was going to do something irrational.

00:33The recent terror attack in Pahlgaam came in the shadow of deeply inflammatory remarks

00:38by Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir.

00:41In his speech delivered just weeks earlier, Munir had reaffirmed what he called

00:44Pakistan's eternal stance on Kashmir, invoking the now outdated juggler win metaphor.

00:49He didn't stop there. Munir doubled down on the ideological framing of Kashmir

00:53by resurrecting the two-nation theory. His words,

00:55Well, our forefathers thought that we are different from the Hindus in every possible

01:01aspect of life. Our religion is different. Our customs are different. Our traditions are

01:06different. Our thoughts are different. Our ambitions are different. That was the foundation

01:11of the two-nation theory that was laid there. That we are two nations.

01:15India didn't hold back. Responding to Munir's comments, MEA spokesperson Randeer Jaiswal said

01:20the only matter pending with Pakistan is for it to vacate the territories it has illegally occupied.

01:24And we will not leave our Kashmiri brethren in their heroic struggle what they are waging

01:32against the Indian occupation.

01:34Munir's reference to a heroic struggle echoes the decades-old strategy of outsourcing military

01:38objectives to non-state actors. Whether it was Kargil in 1999, Mumbai in 2008 or

01:44Pulwama in 2019. These proxy wars have long blurred the line between the Pakistani military

01:49establishment and groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba.

01:51So what are we seeing now? A return to form? Pakistan's political climate is volatile.

01:56The economy teeters on the brink. Its government, widely perceived as lacking legitimacy, is under

02:01siege from within. In such moments, the military has historically found diversion in Kashmir.

02:06Yeah, the limitations or normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir will always be defined by the state

02:12of Pakistan. Pakistan today is in deep turmoil and as long as it is in deep turmoil, it will

02:19try and create a turmoil in India or at least in Jammu and Kashmir.

02:24Fresh intelligence points to Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders operating out of Rawalcoat. One of them,

02:29a man known as Abu Musa, delivered a fiery address on April 18, calling explicitly for

02:34violence.

02:47Such statements are not spontaneous. They are strategic. Groups like L.E.T. have never acted

02:53independently. They operate under the long shadow of the ISI and Pakistan's military command.

02:58Now the question is no longer whether there is a proxy war. The question is how India chooses

03:03to respond.