Every country reserves the right to self-defence, but Pakistan broke every rule in the book

Poochte hain wo ki Ghalib kaun hai,

Koi batlaao ki hum batlaayein kya

Pakistan posed this question again on Valentine’s Day.

India came back with a return gift on the 13th day.

Love was in the “air”, you see. They got made.

That was Ghalib. That was Delhi.

This is Islamabad. This is still Delhi.

And we, Indians, love Ghalib.

We are Ghalib.

They say, if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain. We did exactly that—mountains and all!

I would neither get into the hard news mode nor the analytical one. I am not a subject matter expert on Air Force operations, as many supposed defence experts/analysts on television. I have been an infantry soldier who was taught to cool it to beat the heat. Simple, isn’t it?

So, let me go about it, as simply as possible.

A suicide bomber, as part of the terrorist campaign, rams into a convoy vehicle carrying CRPF personnel killing more than 40 at Pulwama. The Pakistan-based militant organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), claims responsibility for this genocide.

Location: India. Personnel: Indian.

JeM is designated a terrorist organisation by India and the United Nations, as well as by the UK, the US and other countries including Pakistan (hereinafter, NaaPak). India, as usual, reiterated its demands to NaaPak (unholy) to stop supporting terrorists and terror groups operating from its territory and dismantle the infrastructure operated by terrorist outfits to launch attacks in other countries. NaaPak, as usual, condemned the attack and rubbished its link to the attack, denying the presence of JeM on its soil.

Business as usual. Fair enough.

Now, desperate times call for desperate measures. India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. It was a non-military pre-emptive action, specifically targeted at the JeM camp. It carried a message in the form of a payload. The message that the chickens always come home to roost.

Oh, yes! The chickens. Reminds me of biryani (a dish made with highly seasoned rice and meat, fish, or vegetables). Between cooking cock and bull stories and boiling the pot, the crackpot NaaPak knows well that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. The chickens will come. For biryani or otherwise.

Back to NaaPak. After an initial denial, NaaPak admitted the Indian attack. It then denied casualties or damages but confessed that the trigger for the Indian action was Pulwama. The NaaPak authorities addressed the world quoting a private TV channel as the official source of information from India on the basis of which, they exclaimed retaliation.

Retaliation? For what?

You have yourself designated JeM as a militant organisation and banned it since 2002. You have registered this Islamist extremist group as a threat to your existence too and are committed to the stability in the region. You deny the existence of JeM on your ultra-productive soil and you have denied casualties or damage admitting only an intrusion by the Indian Air Force, which, as per you, failed.

India has clearly stated that the strike was non-military and pre-emptive in nature, specifically targeted at the JeM in the face of imminent danger. Every country reserves the right to self-defence. Moreover, one of the functions of the UN Security Council is to take military action against an aggressor. We did exactly that. No civilian and/or military installations of NaaPak were targeted.

Having said that, even if we assume that India penetrated NaaPak to deal with JeM, is it in your welfare or is it warfare? In fact, given that Frankenstein is equally disturbed by its monster, is it conceivable that NaaPak collaborated with India in these strikes on JeM?

Who knows? Did NaaPak retract from its position after the damage was done? Or did it want India to be the bad boy? Who knows?

Apply logic to any of the aforesaid points and help me understand.

Retaliation? For what?

This is what I posted to the spokesperson of NaaPak Armed Forces too, with regards, regardless of his comfort with both English and India. Pun intended.

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