Tazeen Akhtar
Indian Military, the historical arch rival, four time total war enemy and continued perpetrator, facilitator of proxy into Pakistan, is expected to visit Pakistan for taking part in joint exercise in the name of war on terror later this year.
Pakistan’s stand so far has been that India is promoting terror in Pakistan through its proxy from Afghanistan. The tragic APS Peshawer students mass murder was also claimed to be the Indian conspiracy and Pakistan military released a popular song as well in this regard;
” Bara dushman bana phirta hay jo bachoon sey darta hay”
” Mujhey dushman kay bachoon ko parhana hay”
This exercise “Pabbi-Antiterror-2021” would be conducted at Pabbi , district Naushehra of KPK , the same province where APS and many other cruel attacks of terrorists took thousands of innocent precious lives. Another information is that the exercise will be held at the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Pabbi, near Mangla Cantonment.It is near Khariyan that is a garrison city in District Gujrat Punjab.
The exercise is an arrangement of Shanghai Cooperation Organization in which both countries are members. In Sep 2019, the exercise was conducted in Russia where both countries’ militaries troops took part.
Concerned officials in India are reluctant to confirm their participation saying no final decision has been reached so far and Pakistan military has not contradicted Indian participation at Pakistani soil till the publication of this article.
But the speech COAS Gen Bajwah delivered on 18 March 2021 at National Security Dialogue is worth recalling at this moment. He said that both countries need to bury the past and move forward for peace and social development of South Asia.
An unexpected contact between the DG MOs last month on hotline and fresh agreement on ceasefire at Line of Control and Working Boundary can be seen the first step to confidence building between the two historical enemies.
Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will also be the among the participants of this exercise. The decision to conduct this exercise in Pakistan was taken at 36th meeting of the Council of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) held in Tashkent last week.
