Corps commanders’ view: Feeding of false story a breach of security: army

ISPR suggests controversial story was deliberately planted.

ISLAMABAD: In its first formal reaction to the reported rift between civil and military authorities on counter-terrorism strategy, the army on Friday voiced serious concern over the ‘feeding of a false and fabricated news story’, terming it a breach of national security.

The reaction came from top military commanders, who met at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi to discuss the fallout of the October 7 Dawn report which claimed that the civilian leadership told military authorities to act against non-state actors or face international isolation.



The government has already rebutted the story at least three times. But the statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) following the corps commanders meeting presided over by army chief General Raheel Sharif suggests the controversy is far from over.

In fact, close scrutiny of the ISPR statement appears to suggest that the top military brass believes the story was deliberately leaked to the English daily, as evident from the use of words such as ‘feeding’.

Following the Dawn story, Gen Raheel and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt-Gen Rizwan Akhtar met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to express concern over how the details of a highly classified security huddle were leaked and that too with distorted facts.

The military commanders’ view that the leak was a breach of national security means the army wants the officials, who might have leaked the information, to be exposed and punished.

Feeling the heat, the prime minister has already ordered an inquiry and assured that all those responsible would be identified for stern action.

The controversy is believed to have underlined the growing civil-military rift. Observers believe that the government through ‘deliberate leak’ attempted to pass the buck on the security establishment when it comes to fighting certain militant groups.

The move could also be aimed at preempting a full-scale anti-terror offensive in Punjab province, which the military has long intended to undertake.

Meanwhile, the ISPR said corps commanders meeting held a comprehensive review of internal and external security situation with particular focus on prevailing environment at the Line of Control and operational preparedness of the army.



Rejecting the ‘absurd Indian claims of hoax surgical strikes’ as an attempt to divert the world’s attention away from brutalities being committed by Indian Army against innocent Kashmiris, the forum resolved that any attempt at misadventure or any other irresponsible act will be met with the most befitting response.

While expressing complete satisfaction over operational preparedness of the troops, Gen Raheel reiterated Pakistan Army’s resolve to defend the motherland at any cost against full spectrum of threats.

Recounting the successes of Operation Zarb-e-Azb so far and resultant stability being achieved to propel Pakistan into a new phase of development and prosperity, the army chief re-emphasised the need for sustained efforts on internal security to defeat all hostile attempts to reverse our gains.

The participants resolved to continue sustained and focused combing and intelligence-based operations across the length and breadth of the country to uproot terrorism, harmonising it with the implementation of the National Action Plan to address extremism and other causes of terrorism.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2016.