The Verdict
#BalakotAttack: Should Pakistan strike back?

Pakistan denies India’s claims and has stated that there were no casualties or damage caused and that India’s mission had failed because PAF had intervened and foiled the attack.

#BalakotAttack: Should Pakistan strike back?

It would be wiser for Pakistan to keep its protest on a diplomatic level and only criticise India for its cowardly act

Imad Zafar February 26, 2019

Today, Indian fighter jets violated the Line of Control (LoC) and entered the Pakistani air space, albeit for a few minutes. This incident has further raised the tension between both the countries in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. Both countries are showing their citizens different pictures of the air attack and overall the situation seems confusing.

Indian Air Force violated Line of Control. Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back. Details to follow.
— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) February 25, 2019

The Indian side maintains that it successfully destroyed the training camps of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) during the operation. According to the Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, the jets had hit their target and “a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and group of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen were eliminated”.

Pakistan denies India’s claims and has stated that there were no casualties or damage caused and that India’s mission had failed because Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had intervened and foiled the attack.

Indian aircrafts’ intrusion across LOC in Muzafarabad Sector within AJ&K was 3-4 miles.Under forced hasty withdrawal aircrafts released payload which had free fall in open area. No infrastructure got hit, no casualties. Technical details and other important information to follow.
— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) February 26, 2019

Despite the conflicting versions coming from both the countries, the question now arises what happens if Pakistan strikes back or better yet, should Pakistan even strike back? A few days ago, Prime Minister Imran Khan had promised that the nation will retaliate if India tried to carry an attack on Pakistani soil. Are we going to follow through on that promise now? In my opinion, this attack is a trap set for Pakistan by Narendra Modi and we need to not fall in it.

Recently, the foreign ministry was trying to mend the relationship between the two countries. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a PTI lawmaker, met Modi and Sushma Swaraj to deliver a special message of peace from Imran, inviting them to sit and resolve problems between the countries through dialogue. However, despite his visit and Pakistan’s polite diplomatic gesture, the Modi administration launched an airstrike on Pakistan. This clearly shows that New Delhi is not interested in any kind of dialogue.

After the Pulwama attack, the Modi administration was under immense political pressure. They used the attack to gain political advantage in the upcoming elections by accusing Pakistan and building on their anti-Pakistan narrative. From the day of the Pulwama attack, Modi’s plan seems clear: he wants to launch a small scale war against Pakistan and use that to come back in power for another term. Hence, the air space violation carried out today can be seen as an effort to rile up Pakistan and Modi will be waiting for a reply from our end to fulfil his vicious agenda.

As much as he chants slogans of revenge, Modi knows little about war. He can only decide when to initiate war but he cannot predict whether it would be small-scale or will it turn into a nuclear disaster. Moreover, he cannot control the outcome of the war either. So does he really want to get have blood on his hands? At this moment, Pakistan needs to respond with a saner head and it must record its protest on every available international forum.

Following the air space attack, Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi , along with Finance Minister Asad Umar and Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, has warned India of severe consequences and said that Pakistan reserves the right to give a response on this attack. However, Qureshi’s call to take the parliament into confidence about the matter is too little too late. The foreign office should have lobbied against a possible assault from India soon after the Pulwama attack, especially when Modi had already indicated this. Also, the parliament which has not been taken into confidence on any matter pertaining to foreign affairs, be it the details of the visit of the Saudi crown prince or the government’s policies regarding countering Indian propaganda, cannot do much on this issue except pass resolutions condemning India.

It is pertinent to note that after this incident, both the elected government and the military leadership of Pakistan will be under immense pressure to give a befitting reply to India by penetrating its territory. Violating Pakistan’s airspace can be termed as an effort to wage war and considering the blood boiling on both sides of the border, the result can only be disaster. If Pakistan does not respond, it would appear weak and other enemy countries may deem it appropriate to carry out such violations and launch an attack on Pakistani soil. In addition, it would be very easy for Pakistan to retaliate because India attacked first and in the eyes of the international community, Pakistan would not be to blame.

However, it would be much wiser for Pakistan if it keeps its protest on a diplomatic level and only criticises India for its cowardly act and dangerous ploy to play with fire. A war between two nuclear armed states can only bring destruction on both sides, and given our history, we may destroy each other in a matter of minutes. We have been in this situation before and should have learned that wars never were and never will be the solution to India and Pakistan’s problems. New Delhi needs to realise that the way forward for both countries is dialogue, and attempts to attack Pakistani soil will hamper the already weakened chances of restoring peace in the region.

We don’t want war, India. Neither should you.

WRITTEN BY:
Imad Zafar

The writer is a journalist and columnist. He tweets at https://twitter.com/rjimad">@rjimad.

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

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COMMENTS (19)

Henry Smith | 5 years ago | Reply Peace shall prevail as war is not a solution for any issue. Disputes have occurred around the globe between different nations but after massive devastation, they had to negotiate and resolve their issues.

goldconsumer | 5 years ago | Reply So anyone wishes to comment further after today i.e 27th of Feb 2019?

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jarnail singh | 5 years ago | Reply Sensible article ..but for India or US dialogue with Pak leads to nowhere as the nation double deals routinely . In a dialogue there is give n take ,,, pakistan from time of its formation has taken.and taken and taken ,Even USA is tired, so dialogue wont go anywhere in any case. When the DGISPR says no major damage done , no lives lost ... why the need for revenge ? why the jingoism in Pakistan? why the squeals of revenge? Why jets from Pak are sabre rattling ? Why the shelling ? In case India wants to escalate it very well can, without even stepping foot on Pak soil

rajiv | 5 years ago | Reply If there were no casualties, on what basis can Pak strike back?

Dua T. War | 5 years ago If we go by your statement that there were no "casualties" in the bombing that India says were for a terrorist camp, that means Indian media was lying and confesses that there was no camp there. That was the exact sentiment of Pakistan, which i would like to explain so bear with me please. 1. A journalist Mr. Arshad Sharif showed immediately that very night, there were 4 craters as 4 bombs were dropped at intermittent locations. I would request you to watch the videos online of Mr. Hamid Mir, a journalist in Pakistan, arriving in that area and surveying it after hearing the conflicting stories from both the countries. There was no rubble of a building or any hint of human body parts. Rather we got to see the simple villagers who claimed that at the time of impact, members of families fainted with fright. 2. Having our media showing us that there were no terrorists in Jabba which were allegedly targeted and then witnessing India's biased media defaming Pakistan in a rather desperate fashion without actual footages/sources etc, then seeing Indian defence minister not answering any questions from Indian journalists, this portrays that India has violated the LOC in a malicious attempt to target Pakistani civilians and would have been successful had it not been for PAF to repel Indian jets, as per DGISPR. All this, while recalling your news anchors' cries of "For every 1 Indian jawan 100 Pakistanis must die!". 3. That, for all intents and purposes is a declaration of war with the people of Pakistan from India. That anyone can come at any time and bombard on us. Now, even Indian government's statement seems like a cover up to this deliberate aggression upon us. One does not intrude into another country's airspace and not expect any repercussions. It was not a well thought out plan. It was not like you took Pakistan into confidence to carryout a planned airstrike on a confirmed camp with our support. I hope you get my point how all this scenario was perceived by Pakistan. Without sharing any information regarding the "terrorists" and attacking without preamble within the Pakistani territory at night, India has wronged us by a show of power. Now imagine if the roles were reversed. I bet India would have tried it's best to raze us to the ground. We only defended ourselves when the violation of LOC was observed again by the IAF jets.

Naveed | 5 years ago What rubbish, its enough that Indian jets violated our air space with the intention of causing damage and even off loaded sum payloads.

Yogi Berra | 5 years ago | Reply Sensible advice. Pakistan should show maximum restraint at this point. Any retaliatory attack by Pak army will result in large number of losses for Pakistan. As India is waiting for Pak army to come....they are all prepared for Pak attack.

ji sadhu | 5 years ago | Reply i choose peace even in this situation. it doesn't show that pakistan is weak, rather a county with wise people,who chose life. now japan has chosen this path,even korea invaded tokushima, and trouble with other nations but leaders don't drag the whole nation into war,show lot of patience.japan knows how wars start and destructions

Mukhtar Ary | 5 years ago | Reply It is very unlikely of the Indian leadership to have launched an attack after Mr. Vankwani had personally visited Modi especially after a warm meeting. In Asad Durrani's Spy Chronicles, he had suggested that should India be attacked by terrorists from Pakistan & if India-Pak relations were reasonably good, Pakistan may allow willingly India to carryout a cross border attack to appease its public anger. If Pakistan does not launch a retribution attack soon, it might very well have been the case & Vankwani may have conveyed the decision to Modi. If this is true then we should see the revival of talks quite soon which I think is good.

Iftikhar Khan | 5 years ago | Reply India should be commended for not inflicting any damage to lives, properties or Pakistani economy, while releasing most of the pressure and anger in India that was built up following Pulwama terrorist attack. Therefore, Pakistan must not take any action beyond using harsh words and condemnation of breaching LOC. The situation should be allowed to calm down in few days with both parties pretty much satisfied with their action-reaction strategies.

Naveed | 5 years ago Going by this logic we can also attack India after every terrorist incident in Pakistan just to release the pressure?

n_m_a | 5 years ago | Reply We shouldnt strike back. They should have a laugh and joke about it. and put some good memes on the internet showing how stupid the Indian has been with this - just to score some political points and so a politician can stand on a podium and declare India safe (and hopefully win some votes from the lemming voters). I doubt anybody died, the only person who got shafted was the Indian taxpayer…. Winning the PR and information war is more important for Pakistan at this moment. We need to focus on that.

Raj | 5 years ago | Reply So far, i have never seen any article questioning why they are not taking any action against the UN Designated terorirsts Hafeez saeed and Masood azhar. This itself shows that pakistan does not care about what it does to trouble india. If this is the attitude, then india is right in taking such action as it deemed fit. No country can indulge coward activities of using terorrists to trouble another country.

Random Guy | 5 years ago | Reply These events should defuse the situation for a few months.

sanjeev Aggarwal | 5 years ago | Reply Very well written and well advised article. Pak should excercise restrain. Indians want that Pak should respond and they have opportunity to retaliate in a big demonstration of its might. In my view it will be suicidal for Pak to respond at this juncture since all its neighbours are thirsty for its blood.

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